Desperate For Change
by Renne Michaels
Summary: Returning to Midgard, Loki finds that as desperate for change as he is, changes will take time to get used to, especially when they concern his relationship with Tony and Pepper. Darcy lays down her taser to start wielding the internet to the dismay of both the fallen Prince of Asgard and S.H.I.E.L.D. 74,000 plus words. Sequel to 'How Desperate Are You'
1. Chapter 1 - More Information

Desperate For Change - This is a sequel to How Desperate Are You?

Returning to Midgard after an absence of almost two years, Loki finds that as desperate for change as he has been, some changes will take time to get used to, especially when they concern his relationship with Tony and Pepper. Darcy lays down her taser momentarily and decides to start wielding the internet to the dismay of both the fallen Prince of Asgard and S.H.I.E.L.D.

This sequel is 75,000 words long and will update regularly.

Loki, Tony Stark, Pepper Potts, Avengers Team, Phil Coulson, Darcy Lewis, Nick Fury, Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton, Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner.

I obviously don't own or make any money on the Avengers or Thor, they belong to Marvel and Disney and such…. 'cause I'm telling you if I DID own them, there would definitely be some story shifts. You could bet on that.

OoooO

Chapter #1 – More Information

"Hey Phil, guess who made the newspaper again this morning?" Tony called, coming into the lab.

"Phil? Really Stark?" Loki asked rolling his eyes.

"You, big guy," Tony said smirking and pointing both index fingers at Loki as he walked past him and over to his own work bench, "are well on your way to losing your title as the Prince of Darkness. So you are just going to have to settle for being Phil, the Prince of Insufficient Light."

"Ah. So what did you do that made it into the papers this morning? Another Avenger faux pas? Another fight with Ms. Potts?" Loki asked absently, going back to the file he was working on.

Oh. No sting there. Merlin didn't like when Tony and Pepper fought. Thank God, the main one, not the prissy god in front of him, that Loki hadn't been there when Tony and Pepper had fought and broke up 'once and for all' several months ago. While they had both missed Loki and were glad he was back with Stark International after an unexpected two years absence, Tony was very glad that he hadn't been here during their break up.

The rat bastard always took Pepper's side.

Tony knew, just knew, Pepper waited until Tony and Loki were together before she came to get him to sign things or agree to appearances. She knew Tony could only give her so much grief before his lab partner got vindictive. And a vindictive, magic-using god was a force to be avoided whenever possible as far as Tony was concerned.

"No, mega bitch, I did not have another public fight with Pepper. I think the last one was bad enough thank you, and I didn't make it into the paper today, Loki of Asgard did."

"WHAT?!" Loki yelped, reclaiming Tony's attention as he leapt to his feet, spinning around to stare at him. His face was pale and his pupils were so dilated his eyes looked black. It really wasn't his best look.

Tony was actually amazed at the speed of Loki's turn; he half expected a shock wave or something. But he could see why he was dismayed, Loki of Asgard was a name only known in a few very private government files.

"Jeeze, Cupid, you need to take it down a notch. Breathe in, breathe out."

"Stark!" Loki shouted.

"Okay, okay." Tony rolled his eyes. "Well it was a local paper and not a major newspaper." Loki took a deep breath and started to relax. "But it is a main stream news publication, unlike the last five articles that were only in gossip rags."

"So, okay. Maybe the Enquirer is a national publication, but still their circulation numbers have been slipping for the last ten years."

Loki stared at Tony like he was trying to decide if he was crazy or if it was just Tony.

"Umm, tell me Gandalf, how is it that you did not know this?"

"Know this?" Loki growled, glaring at him, "How, by the nine, do you think I would know this? Why are you just now mentioning it? How long have you known about this?"

Tony often wondered if there was some way to harness the energy of the glares Loki gave him. While it surely was a lesser amount of energy than the reactor powering Stark Tower, he was fairly sure each and every glare put out at least as much power as the arc reactor in his chest.

"Calmly grasshopper, it wasn't your picture or anything, it was just a short article." Tony laughed as he hooked an ankle around his rolling stool and sat down at his favorite work bench. "I only keep track of my own publicity. I just figured I would remind you that Pepper has to approve all interview requests."

"Interview requests?" the now vengeful god demanded. He stalked over to the main design table and pulled up an internet connection, flinging it wide with an abrupt, angry gesture.

"Jarvis, please call up any news articles using Loki of Asgard as the search criteria."

Looking forward to an entertaining morning, Tony rolled his stool over so he could watch the screens the Rock of Ages was pulling up.

0ooo0

The archived news accounts of the invasion only ever noted Loki as the Chitauri Battle Commander, as did all but the most classified government files.

Mister Wizard seemed dismayed when the news search actually picked up seven articles, two from the last twenty-four hours. Granted six of them seemed to be almost identical, however the seventh one was completely different and actually linked to a WikiLeaks article. Really? WikiLeaks? Loki opened that link and choked when it displayed copies of actual Asgard Judicial Findings.

Loki's further web search to see how widely referenced the WikiLeak site was, brought up numerous web pages, one of which was lokiofasgard dot com. That one even had a large picture of Loki in his dress armor complete with scepter, horns and a huge list of links on the right side, including the top one labeled, 'What Really Happened'. He turned to glare at Stark who was snickering.

"You know," Tony said thickly after tossing a handful of trail mix in his mouth, "You really should have reserved that name for yourself, just to keep control of your message." He smirked as Loki turned up the voltage on his glare. "Oh look." He said happily and pointed, "They have a Facebook and Twitter link. Jarvis, open up the Facebook page in a new window for me, will ya?"

Which of course Jarvis did. Tony thought he was going to die. Both from the furious look he was getting from the internet's newest star and…. Trying not to drop to the floor howling with laughter. Of course a few snerks slipped out and for each new one that escaped, his death did get a little closer. "Hey, not bad for an ex-war criminal, 8,759 followers and the page has only been up for a few months, shall we check the twitter and tumblr account?"

Tony wanted to howl with unholy glee as the god cringed.

Oh, okay, flinched microscopically, but for the Lokmeister that was the same as a cringe.

"Wait. Jarvis, first let's check out the other Facebook pages and see if any of those are actually for you. Although I am pretty sure 'Loki God of Fashion' is one of yours," Tony snarked.

"Hey, Jarvis, open up the link for that one would you," he called out. The page opened and several posts featuring candid shots of Loki in outfits ranging from his Asgard gear, to his GQ suits, to his incredibly over tailored casual wear popped up. Tony clicked on one and then scrolled merrily through the picture gallery accompanied by low hisses of anger from said fashion god. Until they got to one that showed him and Thor waiting in line at an airport that got a guttural growl.

OoooO

What had he ever done to be cursed with such people in his life he wondered? Darcy Lewis. He was going to have to kill Darcy Lewis. Loki collapsed on a nearby station chair and buried his head in his hands while that idiot Stark snickered and smirked. He looked up again, watching Stark gleefully flipping through the pictures and noticed several from Stark International events.

Loki scowled. "Jarvis? Ms. Potts is back from Germany, isn't she?"

"Yes sir, she is in her office, I believe she is getting ready for a production meeting in an hour."

"Tell her I'm coming up to talk to her please." Loki said, grabbing his suit coat as he strode towards the door.

Tony just looked over at him and laughed. "Um, be gentle with my CEO there, Mister Blonde, I kinda need this one. It's not like I have another one stashed in the supply closet or anything."

Loki reflected that Stark was surely born under a lucky star. He had to be, otherwise Loki would have killed him by now.

OoooO

Reviews and comments would be most appreciated. So appreciated in fact they would speed the posting of the next chapter! As I said this sequel is 75,000 words long and will update regularly, so the chapters are ready and reviews will inspire me to update more than once or twice a week. Thanks for reading!

Sequel to **How Desperate Are You? **

OoooO

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.


	2. Chapter 2 - Meeting Pepper

Chapter #2 - Meeting Pepper

"Lucas come in, I was sorry to be away when you returned. I've been meaning to come down and visit you and Drífa, how is she this morning?" Pepper called, getting up to come around the desk and hug him.

While brilliant in her own way, Pepper Potts was not, was Loki's opinion, always very wise. She obviously knew he was angry, Jarvis certainly would have warned her, yet she made it a point to put herself close to him. Or perhaps she was reacting to the Lucas Laufey that worked here a few years ago. Understandable, but not… wise.

He embraced her, while tamping down the random thoughts of violence he was feeling over the posted pictures and then took the seat she indicated as she returned to sit behind her desk. "So. You look upset? What's wrong? Is it Tony?"

He sat down and regarded her steadily. She was fearless; he would have to give her that. He was more than certain that Jarvis had alerted her to the reason for this visit. Yet there she sat waif like, big blue eyes and not the least bit afraid of him, or at least pretending that she wasn't. It amazed him that Stark could not alter a few minor habits to keep this woman. Ms. Potts was clearly crazy about Stark, ran his company and his personal life for him, but understandably would not allow him to walk all over her while in the throes of one of his bad habits. He shrugged mentally; he'd always thought that supposed genius or not, deep down inside Stark was a drooling idiot.

She was always deceptively tricky; he always kept that in mind when dealing with her. Not like Agent Romanoff, you knew Romanoff was waiting to spring something on you, you just didn't know what. Ms. Potts would sit there radiating innocence, while preparing to spring something on you, and then she would go ahead and set up something that would come at you at some later date, from out of nowhere.

Another thing he had always liked about Ms. Potts is that she did not shy away from confrontation, she didn't invite it like Romanoff, but she didn't avoid it in the least. "Why?" Loki asked, leaning back in the chair and watching her carefully.

"Why not?" She countered with a composed expression. "Don't you think it is time that we rehabilitate your image here on earth?" She folded her manicured hands on top the folder she had been reviewing and gave him a wide smile.

"I am not unsympathetic to your wish for privacy Lucas, lord knows after Tony doing his best to get into every gossip rag in the country with his idiot behavior, not to mention the antics of a few of our higher placed executives who should know better, I do find your more subdued behavior refreshing."

His sense of irony was tickled. "Subdued? You call the invasion of New York subdued?"

"Well there is that," she admitted, with a smile. "But it's not like you've done anything else the last several years that has made it to the public domain. And we do have to look to the future yes?" She leaned her head back against the soft black leather of her chair, eyes un-focusing a bit, her face becoming more serious. "You didn't know if you were ever coming back, but didn't want to us not to be warned so you left Tony those files you had made about Thanos. Why shouldn't important people know about that threat? Maybe not everyone - why panic them? But the important ones should know about your efforts to help earth. A place that isn't really even your home." She shot him a look, "No one knew you were coming back, so when I found that Darcy Lewis had started up that web site I called her." Her eyes refocused on him.

"She was mad you know." She said softly.

Loki was aware of this, Ms. Lewis had been livid when she found he had returned. Not that that wasn't something he was familiar with, but in this instance she wasn't mad because he was here, but rather she was mad because he had left. He hadn't expected her to be in contact his downstairs neighbor, first landlady, then cat sitter, Clara Fogal, which is how she found out that he had returned. He certainly hadn't expected her to show up at his door one evening screaming at him hysterically and then zapping him with that damn illegally over-powered taser of hers when he tried to calm her down. It hadn't hurt him of course, but by the Nine it was annoying… especially when he found out the hard way that she carried two of them.

"Anyhow, she told me why she was doing it, because she didn't think you were all that bad and she just wanted to get some info out there that you weren't really a monster. I agreed it seemed like it couldn't hurt for people to know the truth, And besides, if you ever did come back, I needed to lay down some public relations ground work to protect Stark International. So I fed her a few things, and then saw that some of the other sites that popped up got a few tidbits as well." She smiled sadly, "It isn't main stream info by a long shot, but some of those sites do get a lot of hits, and my PR people have managed to steer most of the forum posts we've come across in a more positive direction." She smirked, "Or at least a more neutral one. Who knew that you looking so good in a tailored suit would help so much?"

"Is that the only reason?" he asked her ironically.

"No, of course not, it is and will always be politics. You need to be 'rehabilitated' so to speak, so you won't be a political liability. I can never get Tony acknowledge how important politics are, but you're smarter that way than he is. You grew up in a place where you had to deal with politics all the time, a place where you can't wait for your political enemies to die off, because they won't. We'll need support for some of the things we are going to have to do if we want to get ready for a threat that may be generations away. This planet has a horrible record for preparing for the long game; we get easily excited and then forget about or get sidetracked from issues we should be remembering." She sighed, "It's an earth thing."

"Ah." Loki was not exactly appeased, but he knew she was right about that. He did need to reduce the risk of the general public finding out about his past actions. Also it most likely was true that while Midgard moved at a quicker pace than he was used to, as she pointed out, the issues had to be constantly re-introduced to new generations. The Midgard attention span was as short as their lives.

"Fine," he said, resigned but not happy. "Is there anything you need me to do?"

"Besides staying out of trouble? Or rather making sure that any trouble you do get into stays out of the public view?" She asked with while calling up something on her phone. "No. We'll try not to let it get too personal, and of course alert you if there are any problems that you looking good in a suit can't solve."

Pepper acknowledged his chuckle ruefully and looked up from her phone, eyes narrowed speculatively. "Speaking of looking good in a suit, I need an escort to some of the parties at the National Governors' Conference in Washington next month. Think you can you help me out?"

She was like a youngling's ball, he thought. She bounced from one area to the next and you never knew where she was going to land. He hooded his eyes to hide the twinkle that rose up to them as his lips thinned and twitched holding back a smile. "Ms. Potts, why?"

"What do you mean, why?" Pepper laughed reaching her hands out across her desk and then lacing her fingers together in a cat like stretch, before bringing them back to fold them together again on her folder.

"Why wouldn't I want a good looking accomplished guy escorting me to a few parties? You have manners, grace, power, I'll be envied. Nothing gets to the over-achieving asshats I hang with like a little one-upmanship. You'll be prettier and smarter than their dates, and are frankly a less obtrusive and better body guard than I could ever hope to hire. You can gather intel better than S.H.I.E.L.D. and you wield off handed comments like a poison stiletto. Heck, according to Tony, you're an ace when it comes to using an actual stiletto."

Loki laughed delightedly, "Why Ms. Potts, are you are trying to make me blush?"

"Could I?" she asked, pausing thoughtfully before continuing, "No blushes, just trying to use all my assets, especially the smooth talking ones that don't create embarrassing incidents for me later."

He titled his head and looked at her quizzically, the words 'New York', practically hanging in the air between them.

Pepper made a face, laughing, "Okay, well not ones connected to busty little blondes in inappropriate places."

"Well no. I'm not a fan of blondes… or 'that' kind of acting inappropriately in public places," Loki agreed smirking, "but I not sure, what with me being 'outted' that others might not want to create an incident, like perhaps the governor of New York."

"We'll make sure he is in line; he wouldn't want Stark Industries to shift some of its operations to Detroit. Michigan is making some wonderful overtures towards us, and it would be a big public relations coup for Stark Industries to help with rebuilding their manufacturing base, so they'll certainly not be making any problems either." Pepper's phone beeped a warning that she ignored, "Besides, Lucas, you are an unsung hero now, please try to remember that."

Loki stood up, "Well I'll let you get ready for your meeting." He looked rueful, "I do thank you for your efforts on my behalf, even if sometimes it doesn't appear that I do."

Pepper nodded, then a frown passed over her face and she bit her bottom lip a bit. "Lucas, I can't tell you how glad I am that you're back. I hope everyone in Asgard is okay."

He paused, halfway to the door, and just stood there, not looking back at her. He knew she was just trying to be polite. "Everyone there is as well as can be expected, Ms. Potts."

Before he could start walking again, Pepper spoke once more, a strange tremble in her voice, "Tony told me that your offer is still good." She cleared her throat, "I'm… I'm thinking about it. Can I have until after Christmas to decide?"

Loki turned to look at her. Pepper was sitting there with a worried expression that he didn't think suited her. "Ms. Potts, whenever you decide, whatever you decide." He smiled gently at her, "I assure you, there is no time limit, so there is no need to fret."

Relief skipped across her features, and she seemed to pull back to the now. "Thank you."

Loki stood there looking at her a moment, hoping that she wasn't feeling pressured, by him or Stark.

As he watched she smiled a wicked little smile, "And my Governor's Conference? What about that?"

Pepper was not the only one who could smile wickedly; only he'd been doing it for far longer than her and had perfected it to an art form. "My dear Ms. Potts, how could I refuse you the assistance you seek? Of course I'll go with you, provided you give me a briefing detailing what message you want put out there and who you need information from."

Pepper nodded politely as he slipped out of her office. As soon as the door closed behind him she grinned.

OoooO

I like me some Pepper. Not with Tony so much, but Pepper alone, very nice don't you think?

I would be most appreciative if you would comment or review. Pleeease! This sequel is 75,000 words long and will update regularly, so the chapters are ready and reviews will inspire me to update more than once or twice a week. Thanks for reading!

Sequel to **How Desperate Are You? **

OoooO

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.


	3. Chapter 3 – Not Amused

**Chapter # 3 – Not Amused**

Loki was tired; you couldn't tell it by looking at him because after all, he was a trickster god. However god that he was, with the greater strength and stamina that went with it, by Yggdrasil's roots his schedule was getting ridiculous lately. His plans of slipping into Iceland under the radar, planting a few physical records, opening up a few bank accounts and then glamouring his way into getting some official to actually issue physical identification for him and Thor had been… expanded, so to speak.

He hadn't expected his personal trip to turn into the Stark Industries pageant that it had become, complete with, thank you Ms. Potts, a private jet; with a half dozen body guards, two public relations officers and one of Ms. Potts' executive assistants in tow. He certainly hadn't been expecting the weeks of paperwork and meetings that ended with everything in train for him to be a Stark International board member as soon as his country of origin problems were fixed.

And fixed they were going to be, he was headed to Reykjavík to become a naturalized citizen of Iceland. He would then be issued visas and his current paper work would be quickly and quietly amended. He was still going to have to scheme a bit for Thor's paper work, not that he was even sure he needed it for him anymore, but he did like to be prepared.

It was strange and a bit amusing having Ms. Potts assign him so many mortals for defense. While she didn't think that his security needs would be that severe, she hadn't wanted to take any chances either. Neither with his safety nor perhaps more importantly to her, Stark International's reputation. He was to leave the security issues, if at all possible, to them. If something went down, she wanted mortals shooting other mortals, not the public relations nightmare of a god killing people in ways that might not be understood.

A soft touch on his shoulder brought him back to present. One of the cabin attendants, the little brunette one named Nancy, was asking him if he would like something to drink or eat. She wasn't really surprised when he asked for a hot chocolate instead of coffee or liquor; she assured him that it was available and she would be right back with it. Which she was, along with a basket of breakfast breads, muffins and… "Were those brownies?"

"We heard you were a bit of a chocolate fiend sir," Nancy laughed, brown eyes sparkling merrily, apparently in response to his surprised mutter. "Take as many as you like, we have enough for the others," She assured him in a low whisper.

So Loki placed three of the chocolate cakes on a small plate and set it on the work table in front of him. He decided that private planes definitely beat regular airline flights and most definitely, S.H.I.E.L.D. transports. David, the up and coming executive assistant that Ms. Potts had sent with him, took the opportunity to hand him a copy of his revised schedule, this one having some free time blocked out for him during regular business hours so he could slip out and take care of his private errands.

After the naturalization ceremony, he was immediately scheduled to meet with some government officials about a small testing facility that Stark International was building in Europe. The hope for them of course, was that their favor for Ms. Potts would translate into easier approval of an Icelandic site. A site which had previously been a long shot at best when compared to the top two proposed locations in Germany and Belgium. Well, they certainly had an advantage now, as he had always thought that cooperation should be rewarded… However he would work with them to make sure that their offer was not substandard. He owed them a chance, an edge so-to-speak, but he was not gifting anything.

OoooO

Several days later, mid-afternoon and Loki was sitting at his desk, taking advantage of Tony's absence in the lab to work his way through a progress report for the Iceland expansion project. His office door was shut, and he had told Ms. Krebs not to disturb him for anything short of Ragnarok. His charcoal suit jacket and current favorite tie, the dark charcoal one with thin emerald and black stripes, were both thrown over a small occasional chair. The office was mostly quiet as he flipped through screens, with the occasional Æsir swear word when he had to stop and make notes being the only sounds heard. He was about half way through the report when Jarvis broke the silence.

"Sir, Mister Stark would like to talk to you immediately."

Tony's voice drifted down from the speakers, he was breathing heavily and the back ground noise went in and out as he spoke, "Yo, Flawed Design* we need you here. Now even. We're already shorthanded without Thor and things are getting away from us. "

Loki kept his eyes and his concentration on the display, almost absent mindedly answering. "I'm not an Avenger, Stark. Also I'm busy and I don't work for you. So no."

The outside noise continued to bleed over the speaker for a moment, before a thoroughly pissed Tony retorted, "I have news for you, Reindeer Games, I own the god damn company, that means whatever you and Pepper might tell each other, Pepper works for me and guess what? Newsflash! You work for me too, and I want you to use your super-secret mystical goat paths to get your godly ass out here to Atlanta before anyone else gets hurt. **NOW**. Understand me? Or you, me and Pepper are all going to go a few rounds when I get back. You got that?"

Loki's brow clouded and he looked up pensively, gaze focused on the bookshelf on the far wall. "Stark, I don't think so," he said slowly.

The only reason Loki had accepted a position at Stark International was due to the understanding that he did not work for Stark. This had worked out well the first two years he had been there, and hadn't been an issue in the several weeks since he'd returned. Had immortality changed Stark this much? So Soon? He wondered darkly.

"What the fuck!" Tony all but shrieked in frustration, "What do I have to say to make you realize I'm serious? You have a contract. That's the same as those fucking oaths that you and Thor are always going on about isn't it? And your contract says Stark Industries can assign you outside projects and I'm telling you that I am authorizing a contract with S.H.I.E.L.D. as we speak, so get your magic twitching fingers here to Atlanta right now!"

Since no one was in the room with him, he didn't have to hide the fact that he was completely and totally furious. It was readily apparent in his expression, or at least it was for the first moment or so until he remembered that being alone in Stark Towers was not the same as being unseen, Jarvis most certainly would have recorded everything. Knowing Stark's prurient curiosity about everybody he interacted with, Loki knew that there was a high probability that Stark would check on that recording. "Fine." Loki finally breathed softly, saving his files with delicate touches on the keyboard, rather than the savage punches he would have liked to use.

Loki walked over and put on his tie and suit coat, making sure that his movements were smooth, controlled and didn't betray his anger.

_Why should I be the only one upset right now? _

"Jarvis, please forward Ms. Potts recordings of the entire conversation Stark and I just had for her immediate attention and let her know I would appreciate an appointment with her, at her earliest convenience when I get back." he asked softly as he twitched his cuffs smooth and settled his jacket, again masking all the irritation in his movements.

"Yes sir, Mister Laufey, I will do so immediately. May I suggest that you take your Bluetooth headset with you sir? Mister Stark and the others will need some way of keeping in communication with you once you arrive in Atlanta. Since you don't have one of their communication headsets I will have to use it to direct and then patch through any their communications to you sir."

Loki huffed quietly and strode over to the desk, just stopping himself from snatching, rather than lifting the headset up, turning it on and putting it in his ear. "Jarvis, please let Ms. Krebs know where I'm going and ask her to feed Drífa before she leaves for the day would you?" he asked in a detached voice.

"Of course sir," Jarvis said.

"Where are they in Atlanta, could you please forward a map to my phone?"

"I've sent it sir; they are in the hotel district, Peachtree and Baker Street."

"Thank you Jarvis," he took out his phone and looked at it, inwardly raging. "Please tell Stark, that I'm on my way." Loki said as he vanished from the office.

OoooO

*Flawed Design - Song by Stabilo. It is soooooo Loki. This link has the song and the lyrics, it was posted by Loki Laufeyson www. youtube watch?v=2ddwJkA92VE&noredirect=1 Take out the spaces

Tony, Tony, Tony... way to piss off a god. Sigh...

As always comments and reviews most appreciated!

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.


	4. Chapter 4 - Atlanta Bound

**Chapter # 4 –Atlanta Bound**

"Mister Laufey has arrived in Atlanta sir; He is currently on the roof of the Hyatt Regency Hotel, where do you want him to go?" Jarvis asked as Tony took a sweep of Centennial Olympic Park looking for energy signatures that could be bombs. If he could declare it clear, they were going to have the civilians move there, out of the way of any exploding building debris.

"Where is that? About four or five blocks from here isn't it Jarvis?" Ton asked, turning for another swing through the park. Not able to see anything, but not really trusting this good fortune he turned for one more pass, "Tell him that's as good a spot as any, have him stay put, I'll be there in a minute."

"Yes sir."

"Stark! Whatever you're going to have Loki do, you need to do it fast, we just had another explosion, on the south side of Portman Boulevard, some expo place," Steve yelled via his headset. "Quite a few people there for some sort of trade show."

"Understand Spangles, I've got the fragments and I can see him right now." Stark replied. Of course what he could see was a tall, thin guy with long black hair, elegantly lounging against an air conditioning unit, in a frickin' designer suit. Seriously? Elegantly lounging on top of a building? Elegantly lounging on top a building in a suit? The guy was enough to enrage a saint.

"Are you insane? No scratch that question, I know you are." Tony shouted, landing heavily near the god and flipping up his face plate. "What the hell are you doing here in a suit? Where the fuck is your armor? We have explosion debris flying all over the place and you are protected by fine worsted wool? I don't think so, come on Alice, let's see the Wonderland armor. Oh, and the goat horns too, the big ones, not that little streamlined thing you wear now, if I'm going to get my ass handed to me by Pepper… And she has already left me a nasty message with Jarvis, thank 'you' very much, I want Jarvis and the news crews to get some nice, recognizable publicity shots of you being a 'good boy'."

"Stark!" Loki snarled. Tony did his best to ignore the flames of anger dancing in the mad god's eyes.

"Hey, no back chat, you're on my clock now, make with the armor, so we can get started."

"Fine!" the wrathful god hissed, anger pressing his lips in a tight line as his suit shimmered away and his heavy armor took its place, complete with the requested horned helm. "Fine," he spat. "Now, what do you want me to do?"

Tony motioned him over to the edge of the building and placed a few scraps of metal on the parapet. "These are fragments from two of the bombs; I want you to use your mumbo-jumbo to see if there are any more items made from 'this' material around here. I mean I know it's metal, but it should have residue on it that you can track back to find its brothers." He looked up anxiously up at Loki, "Can you do it? I mean I would think you could, I wouldn't ask, but it's really important."

Loki looked at the metal and then looked at Tony. From the haughtily controlled expression, marred only by an incipient sneer and the way he was looking down his nose, standing there all tall and Norse godly, it was readily apparent that Loki was here under duress. And fuck it, right now Tony could live with that in exchange for some help.

Loki's hands shot out and he spread his pale long fingers perhaps three of four inches above the metal fragments. Tiny wisps of faint blue haze drifted up from the metal, wreathing his hands, Loki stretched out his arms, closed his eyes and slowly turned on the roof. Occasionally, he hesitated, frowned and again held his hands over the fragments. After about ten minutes, he opened his eyes and spoke.

"There seem to be twelve; they are in various places, some in buildings, some hidden outside. I would have to move to cardinal points to make sure I haven't missed any, but are you ready for me to point out the ones I have found so far to you?" he asked coldly.

Tony relayed the information to the rest of the team and asked Jarvis to notify the Atlanta Bomb squad that they had some locations for them.

"Tony," Clint called over the com-link. "Ask him if he can mark the targets with light like he did when he did when we were doing equipment placement at that hidden lab during the Chitauri invasion?"

Puzzled, Tony turned to Loki, who nodded before closing his eyes. Tony glanced around the city and suddenly there were twelve beams of light streaming up in the air like special event spot lights. "Oooh, very nice Nikola Tesla, very nice indeed."

He was still getting the stink eye from the god; so Tony figured he might as well push his luck. "Is there any way you can light up the actual location inside the building and maybe have a warning siren go off from the location of each one? That way people will be warned away and the bomb squads can find them faster." That look of Space Viking disgust, now other people might have thought that the god was miffed, but Tony knew it was just Lokmeister's way of showing how happy he was. If by happy, you of course were referring to that warm fuzzy feeling a young godling got while envisioning someone spread out in a blood eagle.

"Anything else 'Stark'? Please don't hesitate to draw down my powers for whatever other trivial embellishments you can think of. Perhaps gift wrapping?" he asked coldly.

"Yeah, sure whatever, bows if you can manage them." Tony saw Loki making a few flowing hand movements and then faintly heard warbling sounds coming from several different directions. He looked over the ledge and decided that the light about a block away needed personal investigation. Or at least it did as soon as Loki had hit the major compass points to make sure there were no bombs he'd overlooked. "Alright Merlin, make with the compass point checks. Chop-chop."

After perhaps ten more minutes Loki had not found any more bombs. So Tony pointed to the light he had noticed earlier and told Loki to meet him there. The beacon light was coming from the top of a large office tower, but the warning strobe light and the siren were at ground level, which is where Tony landed. The entrance boasted that among other things, this building housed a German Consulate's office and more importantly to Tony, a strangely noisy FedEx drop box right inside the entry area.

"Seriously, Milamber?" The siren and pulsing light seemed to be doing a fine job of making the civilians shy away from it, although Tony wasn't sure what they made of the poison green silk bow wrapped around the drop box.

Tony was scanning the box, trying to decide if he could safely open it so he could pass on information on its construction to the others when a large explosion occurred behind him, closer to the door of the entry hall, the blast wave throwing him and Loki out of the hall and across the large adjoining atrium. Tony landed against a large concrete plant filled divider with a body deep grunt, while Jarvis yammered in his ear about this system and that system going down. He had absolute faith that there had been a bomb in the FedEx box, but he knew, just knew that they had been played by the terrorists who had planted multiple bombs. So how had Loki missed it? Two bombs? Perhaps two different types of bombs? Why?

"Stark!"

Unable to easily move with the damage done to his suit, Tony shifted as much as he could to the right as an elusive thought tried to get his attention. Loki was scrambling out from under the remains of a large circular reception module that apparently had been what hit him in the back before gathering up the god who had been beside him. The desk and the god had slammed to a stop several yards away on another section of the concrete planter.

Two? "Reindeer Games, the bombs you tracked are to take out the response teams; they had a different type for initial damage." Tony tried to sit up, but his suit was holding him down. "Oh my god. Jarvis warn Capsicle, tell him he needs a bomb squad where he is, not rescue workers. Tell the there are two different types of bombs."

Loki's head whipped around to stare at the epicenter of the blast, eyes narrowing as he started sweeping the area looking for fragments or anything that could identify the first bomb.

Tony sighed. Brilliant though he might be, the god did not have a lifetime of weapons development and testing experience, and would be hard pressed to find what he needed in time. "Jarvis, any joy getting my systems back up? I'd like to be able to get up buddy."

"Sorry sir, it appears that the problems are damaged mechanicals from the blast, you were after all very close to the blast center, this is not something that a system reboot can fix or work around."

Tony sighed. "Okay Jarvis, Eject." Exactly nothing happened, wonderful. "Hey Comet, could you give me a hand here with the manual release?"

His range of vision did not currently include the direction that the pissed off god of mischief approached from. So one minute he was staring at damaged ceiling and the next he was being stared down at by an implacable Asgardian or Æsir or whatever the fuck they called themselves. A green pitiless glare caught his and he tried to smile back at the angry god with his most charming smile. "Pretty please?"

Nothing.

"Umm, Loki?" Not that he usually considered, or truth be told cared, how much he aggravated other people as a rule, however, Tony figured this just might be time to quit with the nicknames for a while. "I know you're pissed, but we are in a time crunch here. Could you please give me a hand?"

"Fine," spat the unappeased god as he reached for the release levers. "I think you should leave now, without your suit you are vulnerable," he mocked, matching his cadence to parody Tony's voice when he had said the same thing earlier. Various areas of the suit began to begrudgingly fold back and with a little forcing from Loki when the one arm section wouldn't, Tony was able to free his upper torso enough to sit up.

"Hey, I am a god among men you know."

"Yes, Stark," Loki retorted, without any hint of softening in his face or posture. "I do know, better than anyone else on this wretched mud ball, I know. But I also know that a Midgard 'god' is not quite as fatal injury proof as perhaps an Æsir, Vanir and certainly not a Jotun."

"Besides" Loki continued in a decidedly snide voice, "We have explosion debris flying all over the place and you are now protected by a silk body suit. No armor, no combat zone. I believe those were the rules. Yes?"

"Fine," Tony huffed back mockingly in 'Loki' tones, before a slightly bitter note crept into his 'Tony' voice. "Let me get this off, I'll find you some shards and then I'll leave. Will that make you happy?"

You smug son of a bitch was added internally, and perhaps unfairly, but now he was getting pissed that Loki was still so pissed. Cripes, could the guy not let it go already? And he had another suit to repair, that just added to Tony's pissed-off-iffy-ness. Which isn't even a word, but who cares, that's how he felt, damn it.

It took a few more minutes to peel off his suit, and then he crawled out in all his body suited glory. He sighed. While it might make the suit more comfortable to wear, the black silk outfit that he wore when he actually had time to dress properly was not really something he really wanted to waltz around in too much, there just wasn't much of it after all.

He walked over to the entryway where Loki was and started kicking around a bit with his trainers, looking for something bomb-ish.

"Stark, we do have another unexploded bomb just down the hallway, perhaps you need to call S.H.I.E.L.D. and arrange some transport."

"Yeah, yeah. In a minute," Tony replied absently, while studying the debris on the ground. Okay… now if I were a bomb fragment, where would I be he wondered. He looked over when Loki sighed; noticing his hands were doing a blue, white glow-y thing and then his attention shifted a few yards away. There! That must be part of the other bomb, he was sure.

Oh.

And there was another one. He picked up the shards and walked them over to Loki.

"What do ya think? Enough for you to use?" Tony asked as Loki accepted them with a sour look and tucked them in an interior pocket.

"Enough, Stark." Loki agreed flatly, wrapping his long fingers around Stark's bicep. "I'll take you back to that roof top, we can wait there while Jarvis calls a transport and I can look for the other bombs. Are you ready to go now?"

"Yeah, I gue-"

OoooO

Question - Did anyone check out the Flawed Design Video that I linked last chapter? The one posted on youtube by Loki Laufeyson? If so what did you think? I am dying to know. :D

Ah.. How appropriate to post this during DragonCon. I love me some Atlanta during Labor Day.

Please comment or review... and if you don't... Fine! :) (I just love Loki's new swear word) Seriously comments and reviews are very appreciated!

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.


	5. Chapter 5 - Feeling Better?

**Chapter # 5 – Feeling Better?**

"Hey, Tony." A voice called as he opened a bleary eye, trying to figure out where he was. Female, nasty? Well close, Natasha.

"Hey Nat, what's happening?" Tony mumbled as he managed to get his other eye open and with a supreme act of will power, got both of them to work together and focus. Briefly. He was in a QuinJet, okay. It wasn't moving. Humm, why? No movement and hard seats… Why are these damn seats so hard?

"Where're we at Red?" he asked the spy sitting across the deck from him, again managing to focus his eyes.

Natasha stood up and came over to sit beside him. She wasn't in bad shape for this time in a mission, at least as far as he could see. Oh yeah, she had a few scratches, some scuffs on her clothes, but nothing major.

"We're at a golf course, just outside the beltway." She said as she peered into his eyes, "As soon as the others finish up, we'll go get them. We would have taken you to a hospital already, but Loki said he did a healing on you, so you should be okay."

Tony started to lift a hand to wave away her concerns, but quickly changed his mind. The muscles in his arm hurt like hell, in fact all of his muscles were screaming at him. And he was wearing weird scrubs of some sort, light green, faded, ugly. He peeked down the inside of the scrub top and noticed that his body suit had a few tears in it.

Oh.

All right, his body suit had a lot of tears in it. If the lower part of his body suit looked anything like the top… Then he had to be seriously exposing some skin. Not that his skin wasn't lovely to look at mind you, but still modesty was called for when around those who were not endowed with such a god-like, yep he was gonna say it, god-like form.

"You guys had another bomb go off beside you."

Tony's scattered attention coalesced fleetingly as he considered that. "Ah. I wondered what happen to my body suit," he said conversationally, before his thoughts collected enough to remember the important shit.

"Oh shit. What happen to my suit?"

Natasha was looking at him intently. "Loki said it's in pieces. But before he agreed to help anymore, he did get Steve to promise to have all the bits picked up and returned to you. All the bits. He was pretty emphatic, so you may end up having to go through a bunch of bomb debris that gets gathered up too. I don't think Cap wants to give him a reason to flip out on us."

"What about the other bombs? Did he find them?"

"Yeah, he found several more; some of the sites only had the one, and the first explosion site had a dud, that's why you got the wrong fragments, the first bomb never went off." Natasha sighed, "If it had, who knows what would have happened while you were gathering fragments."

Tony added a sigh of his own, "Probably the same thing that happened while Loki and I were together. It just would have happened sooner."

They sat quietly for several minutes.

"Loki okay?"

Natasha laughed, "Yeah, a bit scorched, and mad as hell that you didn't leave as soon as you got out of your suit. Once Steve got him calmed down about that and agreed to his demands about retrieving the fragments of it, he did look for the rest of the bombs. Right now I think he's transporting bomb squad peeps to some of the more inaccessible sites. I understand he is still pretty bent."

Tony started to shake his head ruefully, but decided against it in mid shake, so he just looked at her semi-woefully and said, "Yeah, tell me about it. He's been PMS'ing since I called him in."

An amused expression seemed to flit across her face, as if to wonder when Loki wasn't PMS'ing about something. Which really wasn't fair Tony thought, not really. Granted he was a lot moodier than he had been previously, but even still, he was not even close to how over the top psycho mad he had been the first time he'd met the Avengers.

Natasha rummaged around in her jacket pocket, "Oh, here," she said handing him a phone. "Loki said you need to call Jarvis and let him know you are okay."

Tony took the offered phone, "I guess." And then he paused a moment thinking furiously, before turning to her and asking. "Wait a minute, did you tell Jarvis I was okay?"

"I didn't she said, but Cap did."

"Then forget that." He groused, handing her back the phone. "He just wants me to call so Pepper knows I'm free, so she can call to kick me while I'm down." He made a face, looking at the growing amusement on Natasha's. "He's an evil bastard that way you know."

Tony leaned back on the hard bench seat and closed his eyes. He was entitled, he had bomb go off beside him. Without the suit even. He wished the seats were more comfortable.

He gave a deep sigh. If Loki hadn't been there to lie about healing him, he would be so busted right now. Of course if it hadn't been for Loki he would also be a dead mortal right now too, so…

"God," he groaned, rolling an eye over towards Natasha and returning to his main worry. "He was already pissed at me for calling him in on this, Nat and now it's worse with me not listening to him, so getting myself hurt is going to totally cheese him off."

Natasha was brushing his hair off his forehead, stroking underneath a long cut with callused fingertips. "Oh, I don't know Tony. You had a concussion, lots of lacerations, well those might have originally been punctures, a few broken bones, nose and ears were bleeding…"

"Nat is this going somewhere? Or are you just getting off by listing my many pains?" Tony asked grumpily as he sat up, rolling his head away from her questing fingers.

"He must not be too mad at you, you're still healing and you aren't screaming."

He huffed, looking blearily at her. "Why should I be screaming?" he asked. A delicate shudder, almost unnoticeable, wafted through her, although her calm expression didn't change. As quick as it had been, Tony wondered if he had actually even seen it.

"Well if he had been really mad at you, he'd have done a battle healing. Trust me when I tell you those are extremely painful. You'd still be screaming."

"Really, well maybe I'm just good at handling pain? Huh. Ever think of that Ms. Smarty-pants?"

Natasha's brow quirked, her face now sporting a rueful lop-sided grin, "Actually, no Tony, I didn't think that. Just let us say from personal experience, my own with one of Loki's no frills healings and watching you with your past whining at minor injuries, I don't think you would be this good with that type of pain."

"Anyhow, I'm glad it's not hurting you. We'll have you to a doctor in no time."

"Whoa, wait a minute, there is no way I am going to see doctor, I'm okay." Tony pulled away from her, glaring from the safety of a few more inches of distance. "You know what? I'm better than okay, I am 'fine'. With the emphasis on spitting that word out I might add."

Tiny creases appeared at the corners of Natasha's mouth, not a smile per say, but rather a smile-to-be. "Tony, what are you talking about now?"

"Fine, I'm fine. The Prozac god is not the only one who can be 'fine' you know." Tony knew he was being petulant, but hey, if anyone could carry off immature and bratty, it had to be him right?

"And I am so not seeing a S.H.I.E.L.D. doctor; I have my own you know." He lay back closing his eyes. He could say he was tired, 'cause he totally was, but he also wanted to stop talking to Natasha before something he said or she noticed got him caught. Besides, he had been hit with two bombs today; he was entitled to a nap.

"Whatever Tony," said an amused voice from very far away.

OoooO

Next up, back by popular demand, always upbeat, give it up for DIRECTOR FURY!

As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated.

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.


	6. Chapter 6 - Furious Really

**Chapter # 6 – Furious Really**

Fury, totally living up to his name was snarling and stomping across the small conference room. "Stark how are you even alive? Him I can see, it would take a nuke to bust Loki's punk ass, but you just have your tin can, and you weren't even in the damn thing for the second one."

Tony winced as Fury's voice hit that low, throbbing, head splitting bass tone that he got when he was good and truly… wait for it… furious. He rolled his tumbler full of ice cubes and single malt scotch across his forehead. He wasn't sure which was more soothing, the coolness of the iced glass or the promise of forgetfulness which was the full glass of scotch. Only sissies go with that two fingers in the bottom of a snifter crap, he thought, anything less than half a glass was for poofters. Besides, he didn't have all day to be pouring the crap, the sooner he got toasted, the sooner he could forget today and make his drunken escape from big daddy eye patch.

"Well?" Fury demanded, again hitting those agonizing lows tones in his voice.

Tony peered wearily up from underneath his icy glass of amnesia-to-be, "I'll have you know my tin can was the super deluxe model and it saved my sorry ass. Bummer if that pisses you off."

"And the second time?" Fury demanded.

"Director Fury, I did throw up a shield at the last moment." Loki said, giving up looming menacingly by the door and walking over to the table that Tony was sitting at. "That is what saved Stark from the second bomb," He sat down and glared at Tony a moment, before turning again to back to Fury. "Sadly I was in a bit if a rush and some of the over blast bounced back and hit Stark. Fortunately, the debris was no longer traveling at full speed by then. Hence he survived long enough for me to heal him."

Tony so wanted to roll his eyes. Loki was such a bull shitter. But Tony was willing to take all the help he could get right now. Especially since Loki knew that Tony didn't intend to tell anyone about his change of mortal status right now, or even ever. And let's face it, no matter how good Tony was at shoveling the shit; the god of lies has had centuries more practice and his delivery was just that much better.

"Yeah, thanks buddy. My phone was toasted, you want to call Jarvis for me and ask him to make sure my jet is ready or me?"

"Oh, Stark," Angry God purred in full sadistic bastard mode. "I've already promised Ms. Potts that I would personally transport you home the instant Director Fury is done with you." He flashed Tony a very unfriendly tooth filled smile.

"Fine," Tony groaned. "Look, could you go terrorize someone out in the break room or somewhere? I need a few minutes with Mister Happy Face here. I'll come get you when we're done."

Tony made love to his icy glass of forgetfulness for several long minutes after Loki had given Fury a curt nod and then left the room. But like all good things, this came to an end when a very pointed 'harump' was shot his way.

Oh yeah, Fury.

"Nick buddy, I want one of those damn scroll things for Martin Riggs, not one of the little ones either, I want a big one."

Fury huffed, leaned against the wall and folded his arms before smirking at Tony. "Stark, S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't have a contract with Loki for this afternoon. We didn't call him, you did."

Tony nodded. He thought this might go down like this. "Ya know Nick, as a S.H.I.E.L.D. operative I did an emergency consultant contract for Loki on your behalf. So now you either pay up or I am going to have to. Because just between you and me, I am not going to be the one who finds out what happens to someone who stiffs an Asgardian Prince, especially not the pissy one."

Fury just rolled his smirk into that lopsided grin of his and looked at Tony steadily for several long moments of silence. More days than not, today being one of the more days, Tony hated the misbegotten S.O.B.

"And if I have to," Tony continued after taking a big fortifying sip of his scotch, "If I have to Nicky, I'm going to buy him a big chunk of Stark Preferred stock for his services today." Fury shrugged. "And I am taking the cost of said stock out of the funding I donate to you guys." Tony was rewarded not with a change of expression, but at least with stiffening, which for Fury was a big reaction. "A really big chunk of stock," Tony said twisting the knife. "And I'll pay premium to get it if I have to."

He put down his drink and gave Fury his sweetest smile, "Oh, and you have to give Pepper her standard fee. Or else that will come out of your funding too."

Fury just stood there, shit eating grin frozen in place, not saying a word. This was fine with Tony, heck he had more than enough words to finish this conversation. "Furthermore, Nick. Just so this never happens again, I want a services agreement that mirrors the ones you give Pepper, so that I can use it in an emergency to call him in without having to argue with you."

Fury raised an eyebrow at him. "I don't think so Stark."

Tony spun his chair around in a circle. Damn straight he was aggravated, he so did not want to deal with this right now, he only wanted to get drunk enough that Pepper couldn't hold a conversation with him when he got back to his tower. "Oh come on Nick. What's it going to cost you, a sheep skin? Some ink?"

Fury started pacing again. "Those are pretty open documents Stark; there is no telling how much they will cost us. We can't be careless."

"Yeah, well how many have you already given him?" Tony shot back at him.

Fury paused. "Eleven. He has eleven big scrolls."

"Really? And how many has he cashed in yet? I can tell you that, none. So far all his assistance has been at the cost of a few freaking pieces of old style paper and some ink." Tony snorted and turned his attention to making his half empty glass, emptier.

"No, but Coulson has had to redeem two of the small ones, and of course what we paid Stark International." Fury snapped.

"Chump change for what you got, Nick, and what was really done for the ones redeemed? Were those favors a big problem for S.H.I.E.L.D.? I know about the one to help the Fogal lady and the Lewis kid, what was the other one for Nick?" Tony asked angrily. "Something horribly complicated? Expensive to achieve? What?"

Fury glared at him. "Traffic Tickets," he growled.

"Excuse me? I thought you said he asked you to fix some traffic tickets for him?" Stark rolled his eyes at Fury's nod. "Oh. My. God. Will the horrors never end; he made you fix some tickets for him. The dastard."

"Actually it was twenty-seven highly toxic parking tickets written to your secretary's nephew. Kreb's was worried that her nephew might be targeted in Philadelphia's scofflaw round up."

Tony took a large drink of his scotch, trying to keep a hold on his temper, "So not even chump change right Nick?"

"Stark, we didn't call him, you did." Fury said dismissively. "What's in it for S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

If Tony hadn't been a better poker player he would have gasped. After all he had done for S.H.I.E.L.D., the Cyclops in front of him thought they were going to try to chisel him for more? "Oh hell no," he thought angrily.

"What 'was' in it for S.H.I.E.L.D. was finding a bunch of bombs in a hurry," Tony spat. "But seemingly that doesn't matter to you, so I thought maybe keeping your funding intact might be an incentive, but you know what? Don't worry about it Nick, my offer to let you handle it is off the table; your funding is buying some stock and paying Pepper."

"Now see here Stark-" Fury growled, moving to loom over Tony.

"No, you see here Nicky." Tony snarled, reaching back and slamming his drink down on the table behind him. "I want a god damn future services contract in my office by the end of the week. You got that? Or Pepper will not be okaying any future work for you at all." He stood up, glaring angrily at Fury, "Pepper may run Stark International, but I own a controlling share of the god damn company and even though everyone seems to try to ignore it, including Mister Wizard, the fact is that said god of mischief ultimately works for me."

Fury stood his ground, standing chest to chest with Tony. "Stark, you need to be reasonable," he growled.

"You want reasonable, Nick, here it is. As much as you are pissing me off right now, I am still an Avenger. Don't make me rethink that." Tony pushed past Fury and wrenched open the door, turning he narrowed his eyes and rumbled, "On my desk, one week from right now Director Fury, not a minute longer."

OoooO

As he was propped up against the wall at the end of the hallway, it only took Tony a few seconds to find Loki. A dark haired, ridiculously graceful, elegantly armored, sardonically head tilted, eyebrow raised Loki. Who was smiling and showing way too many teeth for Tony's current mood. "You don't start with me," he snarled pointing a finger as the god of mischief stood away from the wall.

"Fine. Are you ready to leave now Stark?" Loki asked coolly as he straightened up.

"Yes as a matter of fact, I am. And I have had just about enough 'Fines' for today Laufey." Tony snapped stomping over to stand beside the tall man.

"Fine." Loki snapped grabbing his arm as blackness and a tugging sensation rolled over Tony.


	7. Chapter 7 - Principal's Office

**Chapter # 7 – Principal's Office**

Pepper looked up from her desk startled as Tony and Loki appeared in front of her. Tony saw her eyes widen and out of the corner of his eye he saw Loki sketch a small bow and then disappear.

What a damn Asgardian fricking rat bastard he was. Tony had wanted to come back to his part of the tower and maybe avoid Pepper's phone calls for a few days, not be planted on her carpet like a school kid being sent to the principal's office.

Tony reached over Pepper's desk and punched the intercom button, before dropping down into one of the leather guest chairs in front of her desk.

"Six fingers of scotch on the rocks, now." Tony called out smoothing down the stupid scrub top he was wearing. "Single malt preferred."

"Ms. Potts?"

"Thank you Jeanine, could you please hurry with Mister Stark's drink?"

"Yes, Ms. Potts," said the voice from Pepper's phone.

"Jarvis," Tony called.

"Yes sir?"

"Any idea where the Prince of Prissiness is right now?" He asked, leaning on the arm of the chair, holding two fingers against his temple to support his head.

"Yes sir, he is in his office, he has called up the Iceland project that he worked on this morning, and is getting ready to pick up reviewing it where he left off this morning. Do you need to speak with him sir?"

Tony's face screwed up in a grimace, "No Jarvis, just tell him I said he was an asshole and we are now even."

Pepper arranged her papers, replacing them in their folder and closing it, her manicured nails tapping on the folder as she sat there examining Tony.

It had been a really crappy day and Tony saw that it was going to get much worse before it got better. He really needed to chill out, he thought, letting his mind wander, not even wanting to think about the reaming Pepper was planning on giving him. Or, the one he was planning on giving her. He really liked Pepper, better than anyone, and he hardly ever got mad at her, but if she thought she could… Tony started to feel tight, like his skin was too small for him, like he did before a really big fight.

No. Not yet. Casting his gaze around the room he looked for something else to think about.

Oh look, what a great sunset!

Pepper had a good view from her office, he'd always liked it. The setting sun cast a warm glow that just set alight the rich wood grain of her desk. She favored a much more traditional office that he did. None of the polished steel and glass and sleek lines he had in his minimalist modern _'official'_ office. Rather Pepper had fine antiques, gorgeous woods, exquisite objet d'art and crap like that. He didn't spend much time in anyone else's office at Stark Industries, so he honestly couldn't say if many others had their offices set up like hers, well obviously not as nice, she was the CEO. But say the traditional styling and all, most of the offices he glanced at in passing were contemporary style, with maybe a lean towards slightly modern and crap like that.

Tony frowned, temper coming back for a moment; the only other office that Tony remembered at Stark International that even resembled hers was Loki's. In fact… He rolled his head back, looking towards the wall unit on the left side of the office. A bowl so translucent it appeared to be gently glowing from within rested on one of the middle shelves, very close to the unit's center in a place of honor. It was, even he had to admit, a lovely piece, shallow bottom with tall sides, about ten inches wide and six inches tall, all cream porcelain with a wide rich brown irregular stripe running from bottom to top, accented on either side with two equally irregular stripes of real gold inlay for crying out loud.

Loki had given the bowl to Pepper for her birthday, about a year after he had started working for her. He'd commissioned it special for her in Asgard for crying out loud and had it filled with La Maison du Chocolat truffles. Loki was a fucking kiss ass, that's what he was.

With an internal snort Tony recalled how he would have needed a scientific calculator to tote up all the god's damn brownie points that day. He got the thinking ahead to commission something special points, ordering it soon enough for it to be done on time points, a style she liked points, exquisite workmanship points, not duplicable anywhere on earth'frickin'gard points, filled with her favorite type of chocolate points, actually thought of it himself points, intricately wrapped points and last but not least, a personalized calligraphed card that he had done himself, complete of course since he was the God of Bullshit, with original verse, cherry on the fucking top points. As soon as Pepper had opened the gift, Tony had expected a swat team of federal authorities to show up and take away Loki's damn man card.

The memory of Pepper holding the bowl up for everyone to see still made Tony's teeth clench, and he had more than once considered what kind of _'accident'_ it would take to break the damn thing without her shooting him. He had told her order any freakin' sports car she wanted as his birthday present to her and that hadn't gotten half the ooh and aww's that Loki's damn candy bowl did. Well, okay most of the guys present had drooled, but most of the women had been clinging and climbing all over Stark International's very own Don Juan. And if Tony's own experience let him correctly read Loki's fatigue levels, they must have continued their attentions for several weeks afterwards.

Tony did a little internal eye roll at the memory of several of the more 'sensitive' men, including that insanely good looking Eddie guy from marketing, who had joined the ladies in vying for the god's attention that night and heck, for all Tony knew the weeks afterwards as well.

Bastard.

Not that Tony had been jealous or anything, after all, who doesn't want their fiancé to get nice stuff on her birthday. But he could have done without the sardonic smug smile the god had given him when he had mentioned, just in passing, how overly new age sensitive Loki's present had been. He certainly did not deserve to have to endure Loki's wickedly delighted chuckle as he agreed with Tony and suggested that perhaps Pepper would have liked a basket of strawberries better.

Fucker.

_'Stark, how could you not know that Ms. Potts likes intensely personal gifts of a splendid nature? How long have you known her? Good heavens, didn't she have a hand crafted display case made for your first arc reactor? As soon as I saw what she had sent my mother I knew, yet you're engaged to her and you don't?'_ Smug jerk. Worse, Pepper didn't see him for the smarmy bastard he was. Oh no. She thought he was adorable. Seriously? Adorable? Honestly, some days Loki was enough to make an ex-fiancé hurl.

Pepper smacked a hand on the folder in front of her. "What?" Tony jumped recalling his scattered scotch soaked attention, which Pepper had totally seen.

"We might as well wait for my drink to get here before we start," he growled, letting her glare roll right off of him. Tony noticed that her lips thinned as if holding back a biting remark. Tony felt his momentary escape into memories of the past end as his bad mood merged with the now '_remembered_' irritation of Loki's constant one-upmanship. Which he totally did not need to add on his big pile of crap for today. Tony's own mouth thinned in anger and he glared at Pepper.

"Pepper, don't start with me. I have had a really bad day, lost a suit, been blown up twice, fought with the magic man '_and'_ the one eyed menace, I am not really in my happy place right now."

Pepper huffed, brushing a bit of non-existent lint off her red suit sleeve. She turned her watch face up and Tony knew she was wondering why it was taking so long to get his drink here. A few minutes later, when that Jeanine chick finally brought it in, Pepper ended up tapping her French tipped nails on the desk in an agitated pattern waiting for her secretary to hurry up and close the door and leave.

"Well you have your drink now Tony, can we get started with the yelling? I have things to do before I go home tonight."

"You want to yell first or you want me to?" Tony asked taking a large drink and leaning back with a deep frown as he tried to calm down before he said something he would regret. He looked up and the exasperated expression on Pepper's face focused all of today's irritations into one big ball of mad. He leaned forward and slammed his drink on her desk just as she opened her mouth to speak.

"On second thought, this is my company, so I get to yell first." Feeling his anger wash over him, he continued harshly, "Not only that but you and the snarky one both work for me, so maybe you both need to dial your normal pissyness down a couple of hundred notches so maybe I wouldn't have to yell!"

"Tony, you need-"

"NO!" He slammed a clenched fist down right beside his glass. A small splash of scotch spilled onto the rich mahogany finish. "You need to understand that this is _'my'_ company and occasionally I will make a decision that people disagree with. And when that happens you both will just have to put on your big girl panties and accept it!"

"No! You listen to me Antony Edward Stark, this very much concerns me." Pepper spat. "And it concerns the good of _'your'_ company, which I run for you," She leaned forward placed both palms flat on the desk and glared at him, "So don't you yell at me when you step out of bounds and get in trouble."

Tony's face plainly showed his incredulousness. "What bounds are you talking about Pep?" Tony retorted. "How did this even get me in trouble? Snarkmeister works for my company and that makes him my freaking employee you know, therefore, I am allowed to tell him what to do! And if he doesn't like it, he-"

"Oh no you don't," Pepper hissed jumping to her feet, the muscles in her neck taut, her arms crossed and every bit of her posture closed off to him. "I hired him to help me, which he has done. He only agreed to take the job on the understanding that he _'wouldn't_ be working '_for'_ you. Amazingly enough Tony, he'll work with you, but he doesn't like taking orders from you, but he will take them just fine from me."

"Well that's too damn bad, because-"

"And besides he works for Stark International, not S.H.I.E.L.D., you might want to keep that in mind, you can't force someone to take outside contracts as a superhero!"

They stood there, both breathing heavily and suddenly Tony could see all the fight just drain out of Pepper as she crumpled down into her chair.

Pepper leaned her elbows on the desk and peered wearily out from under the hands framing her flushed face. "Tony," she pleaded in a low whisper, "please don't mess this up for me."

Wha-?

What?

Tony stopped, mouth hanging open, devastatingly cutting retort to her superhero crack forgotten as he looked at Pepper, as undone as he had seen her in many a year.

Mess this up for her? What the hell was she talking about? Not her and Loki surely? Tony's heart stopped a moment and then restarted with a painful thump. He loved Pepper, he really did. Well he obviously didn't love her enough to make her happy, but still, more than anyone else he knew. And besides... Much as he sidled away from admitting it, he liked working with Loki. And yes, if you held a gun to his head, he would admit that he enjoyed Loki's company socially. He was as smart as Bruce, as funny as Bruce and more importantly to Tony, he could be aggravated in ways that would just be way too stressful for Bruce to handle without Hulking out. But Pepper and Loki? Tony knew he had been going to events with Pepper lately, which got Tony off the hook. Not that Tony would have gone willingly of course. But…

Tony honestly felt a little faint as he groped for his scotch. His expression must be something extraordinary judging from the look Pepper now gave him. But still, Tony thought it would kill him if they… NO. He didn't even want to think about that. He couldn't think about that... But he did.

"Pep, how long has this been going on?" he asked hoarsely.

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Hopefully this is going well for you the reader. Please let me know what is and isn't working. Comments and Reviews make my fingers type faster... honest!

Also, for new fic that I am working on... Looking for someone to translate a few curses into proper Asgardian. I know I have a few readers from Norway and Iceland, so if anyone could give me hand with this I would appreciate it. The first phrase is - Misbegotten son of disease-ridden whore

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.


	8. Chapter 8 - Tony Unhinged

**Chapter # 8 – Tony Unhinged**

Tony gets a bit testy. Okay, maybe really testy. And also pretty lippy. Not a good thing to do when you are addressing the God of Mischief.

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While no one would know it, including the short goateed troll that would almost certainly be examining Jarvis' security recording of his office, Loki was still absolutely livid. However centuries of having to remain placid and calm in the face of provocation in Asgard had taught him how to look composed even when he would rather be dismembering someone. Of course, the fact that he had to sit here in his own office with a mask on his emotions due to Stark and his ubiquitous recordings was only adding to his anger and made the idea of dismembering someone, especially a short brunette male really appeal to him right now.

_It's ridiculous, he thought, I can hide my activities from Heimdall and Odin, but not from Stark. _

While he understood, and indeed sympathized, that Stark had control issues, Loki thought perhaps it was time to stop humoring the man's bad habits, especially since Stark's issues had started adversely affecting him. Loki didn't let Odin watch or control him anymore, so he certainly wasn't about to let Stark continue to do so. Stark had not really been a problem for him in the past, which is why he had let the matter slide; in hind sight however this had turned out to be a mistake that now had to be corrected.

Frowning at the screen, he paused a moment considering… Stark would have to be handled very carefully, he thought or this could spiral out of control… and that would, if not derail, at least impede his long term plans.

Loki decided to put coding a privacy routine on his mental to-do list, with perhaps a bit of magic thrown in to keep the code hidden or prevent it from being removed. And perhaps it was not too soon to start planning a reality check for Stark. Yes, he would definitely have to '_carefully' _find a wayto make sure Stark did not get too out of hand. Not that Stark's current behavior was too unexpected what with the recent changes he had gone through coupled with his normal obnoxious 'Starkness'.

He continued to work on the Iceland expansion project, determined to finish at least of draft of his recommendations this evening. He wanted to have his final recommendations done before the weekend, it wasn't due until midweek, but he did like to allow time for problem resolution if needed.

As Loki flipped through the screens, resolutely concentrating on the expansion project, dark thoughts about Stark's recent actions kept intruding on this thought processes, to the detriment of his completion estimate.

Damn.

Thankfully, about an hour later, despite his mental state, Loki was finally able to finish a draft of his initial recommendations. He allowed himself a few moments to stretch in his chair and then with just the tiniest bit of internal embarrassment, he casually walked over to the small Coffee Bar beside his sitting area and looked in the small cube refrigerator under the counter. Inside the fridge were the normal items for guests like creamer for their coffee, bottled water, various sodas and the like; however they were not the magnet that reluctantly drew Loki over to peek inside. While you would never get him to publicly acknowledge that his latest guilty pleasure was a bit childish, he still couldn't stop the small smile from playing at the corners of his mouth when he saw he still had one bottle of chocolate milk from the Battenkill Valley Creamery left on the refridgerator door shelf.

Ms. Krebs was indeed a crown jewel of a secretary. She had started stocking chocolate milk for him after he had returned, when she noticed that he almost always allowed his hot chocolate to cool before drinking it. How she had found out about the Battenkill brand and made arrangements for its delivery he had no idea, but in his opinion, that discovery alone was going to guarantee her a year-end bonus. And it was going to be a very nice bonus; he knew this because even if it wasn't due to be turned in for a few months, he had already filled out all the paperwork.

Loki bent down to get his last bottle of chocolate milk and then grabbed a napkin before retreating back to his desk. He was going to skim through the Iceland report one more time and then call it a night. He took a long, satisfying swallow of his milk and then set it down on the desk. Running his fingers through his long hair, he leaned back and then stretched one more time. It was a wide, muscle relaxing, tension relieving stretch that didn't end until Loki's arms were totally outstretched over his head and even his fingers were arched back.

Which is when his office door blew in off its hinges, Loki ducked his head and covered it with his arms to protect his eyes and face from door shrapnel which also exploded his two monitors, the glass milk bottle, his picture of Frigga and everything else that had been sitting in his desk. Covered in wood debris, plastic fragments, glass shards and dripping chocolate milk mixed with blood, he looked up at the clearing smoke to see Stark in one of his other Iron Man suits leveling his hand repulsor at him.

Even as Loki called his armor to him and heaved the huge desk up, first as a barrier and then as a missile headed towards Stark, his first though was, _Seriously? After all the crap Stark has pulled today he is now trashing my office? _Of course his second thought as Stark was exploding his desk in midair, was that Stark was going to be lucky to get out of this alive, grand plan or not.

"You fucking backstabbing bastard!" Stark screamed rushing into the office and lighting up his lasers. Loki dropped flat to the floor as the wall behind where he had been standing became a scored and smoking ruin. Before he could move Stark had him full on targeted with various panels in his suit retracted and missiles prepared for launch.

Releasing his armor, Loki put up both hands, palms out and sat up as his armor dissolved and his business suit shimmered back into place. "Why?" he croaked, looking up at Stark, drawn brows and a worried confused expression washed over him as he tilted his head, trying to understand what was going on. He could feel the blood from various cuts on his face, neck and forearms starting to trickle down his skin. Even without being able to see behind his mask it was apparent to Loki that Stark was breathing heavily.

"I thought we were, maybe not friends, but at least buddies. But you are such a deceitful prick it's no wonder everyone else in the nine realms hates you!" Tony shouted, his outstretched arm trembling.

"Stark, I don't know what you are talking about." Loki told him, hands still in the air, but leaning forward and getting ready to stand.

"No, you stay right there, don't you even fucking move or I will blast you into tomorrow!" Tony shouted, firing a small projectile which just skimmed a tendril of Loki's hair before impacting into the wall behind him with a small explosion. "Next one is going right between your lying eyes. How can you even live with yoursel-?"

A blast of green energy came out of nowhere to hit Tony's left side and threw him hard into the wall. Shaking off the broken plaster he spun, mask turning quickly in the direction that blast had come from, while reorientating his weapon lock on Loki.

"What the hell did you just do?!" Stark hollered almost vibrating with anger.

Making small placating motions with his hands, Loki quietly said, "Stark, please tell me what's wrong? Surely you aren't this mad because I dropped you off in Ms. Potts' office."

Another small caliber missile bracketed the other side of Loki's head causing him to flinch in the other direction and then stop, holding his head stiffly. "Don't you even think about mentioning Pepper to m…" Tony was almost stuttering from anger "I can't believe you have the balls to stab me in the back like you did and then pretend nothing happened. Okay, I can believe it. Hell I watched you do it to your own brother time and again. Maybe I am as stupid as you thought I was," a short bitter laugh escaped him.

"Oh please Stark, just tell me how you really feel" Loki said, beginning to feel much less conciliatory towards Tony. What, he wondered, was going on with Stark? That he had drinking sometime after Loki had dropped him off in Ms. Potts office a few hours ago was obvious. Of course Stark seemed to be having some difficulties right now, and alcohol was not doing him any favors there.

"How stupid you two must have thought I was," Tony hissed. "And you! You damn psycho, how could you talk to me every damn day like nothing was going on? How could even you carry that off with a straight face?" Another bitter laugh escaped him, "Oh wait, god of lies. Let's not forget that."

"No Stark, I am not the god of lies, I am actually a trickster god, very different, although I will admit that most people are too stupid to see the difference." Loki said in a testy voice. "If you don't tell me what this is about right now, I'm afraid you're going to be very unhappy, very soon."

"Tricks huh? I suppose the ol' silver tongue is a help there, a good whore has to make magic with the mouth don't they? Oh, and you even have the magic part down pat too. Lucky you," Tony mocked, a nasty smirk apparent in his voice, at the enraged expression that flowed across Loki's face. "I doubt if you can make me any unhappier than I am right now, but bet you've always kept your tricks really happy with that talented, lying, whoring mouth of yours." He taunted hatefully.

Loki surged to his feet, eyes blazing with anger, ignoring the weapons trained on him. "How dare you speak to me like that," he said savagely. "I don't know what has gotten into you Stark, but I'll have the skin from your back for this insolence!"

"So? How else should I speak to the back stabbing scum who fucked my fiancé while pretending to be a friend?" Tony flipped up his face plate and glared his expression tight and hard.

Loki's body went rigid with shock, his mouth opened, but then closed again in a hard thin line as he stared unbelievingly at Tony.

"But hey, you must be a pretty good fuck to get her to give you a board seat. I guess you're lucky that she'd taken over as CEO by the time you showed up again." He continued dismissively, "I don't care how good your mouth is, I'd have only bought you dinner." He looked Loki up and down, "or if your tongue was really '_that'_ good, maybe a nice pair of earrings."

Loki eyes widened and then he let out a ferocious snarl and closed the distance between him and Tony.

"Don't even," Tony growled, slamming his replusor directly over Loki's heart. "You're done, I'd kill you but you're just not worth it. I want you out of my building now. Do you understand? And don't ever come back."

Tony was pushed forward hard enough that he fell against the unmovable god in front of him. He looked at the feral grin that Loki flashed him, as the emergency eject levers on both sides of his armor made the unmistakable sounds of locking into the retraction position. Instinctively, he knew that Loki had something to do with this and he fired his repulsor straight into his chest, creating a large charred hole in the white dress shirt as Loki was blasted into the wall in front of him with a sickening thud. Over the clacking noise of his suit folding away, he felt a cold chill to run up his spine as a soft voice behind him whispered menacingly in his ear, "I understand a lot of things Stark. First and foremost I understand that you're a suicidal fool."

The dark haired figure that was crumpled up on the floor in front of him shimmered away.

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As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated and will result in updates being more than once a week. Hey... deal. :D

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.


	9. Chapter 9 - Jarvis Override

**Chapter # 9 – Jarvis Overide**

"Jarvis," Loki called as he tripped Tony and then slammed him back hard so that he bounced off the scorched wall and fell where the Loki duplicate had previously fallen, "Where is Ms. Potts right now? Is she still in the building?"

"Yes Mister Laufey, although she will be heading down to the parking garage any minute now."

"Jarvis," Stark yelled. "I revoke all of Loki's authorizations immediately. Every fucking one, right now do you hear me!"

"Of course sir," Jarvis said. "All authorizations for Lucas Loki Laufey have been revoked."

Loki's murderous stare bored into Tony. _How dare he_, Loki thought, honesty unsure if he would ever be able to forgive Stark. It wasn't only the insults that he was furious about, but also the fact that Stark actually thought him stupid enough to betray his own handpicked partner. He could not have even imagined that Stark could find it in him to believe such slander about Loki when he had never given him any reason to even suspect such a thing.

"Jarvis," Loki said, maintaining a calm voice with difficulty. "'Override', authorization, 'Viking Space Punk', voice verification 'Loki', protocol 'Spoiled Brat', execution, 'Immediate'."

"Hey! Jarvis don't listen to him! He can't give you orders."

Very good Mister Laufey, protocol 'Spoiled Brat' in place.

"Jarvis, immediate suspension of all authorizations for Anthony Edward Stark. Verify please."

Tony came boiling up off the floor swinging a scrap of desk at Loki's head while screaming, "Jarvis, Override, authorization Blue 2165, voice verification 'Tony Stark', Protocol 'Hostile Takeover', execution 'Immediate', verify now!"

Loki ducked under Stark's swing, stepped forward and slightly to one side as he pounded a vicious elbow into Stark's right side, dropping him to the floor with an ominous crack of his ribs.

"All authorizations for Anthony Edward Stark have been revoked." Jarvis intoned in his dispassionately cultured voice as Stark lay on the floor gasping for air.

"Jarvis, please forward Ms. Potts the recordings from this office starting the minute the door blew up. Ask her to review them immediately," Loki reached down and grabbed Tony by the shoulder of his shirt, yanking him up off the ground. "Please let me know as soon as she had started to view the recordings."

Loki yanked Tony through the debris and into the outer office where Ms. Krebs spent her days. Just as they cleared the door, Loki closed his hand around Tony's throat and jacked him up against the wall with is feet dangling.

While he kicked and clawed at the arm holding him, Tony screamed strangled curses at Loki and unheeded commands at Jarvis.

After trying to get his attention several times to no avail, Loki backhanded Tony before growling, "I am willing to forgive you many things Stark, however naming me whore is not one of them. It is only because of the friendship you have given me these last few years that I haven't already slit your throat." His narrowed eyes trapped Tony's gaze.

"Mr. Laufey, Ms. Potts has started reviewing the recordings." Jarvis said.

"Excellent, thank you Jarvis. The minute she is done viewing them, please ask her to come to this office, Mister Stark is in need of her immediate presence."

"Jarvis, no! Don't listen to him. Override, authorization Blue 2165, voice verification 'Tony Stark', Protocol 'Hostile Takeover', execution 'Immediate', verify now!" Tony screamed as he struggled.

Loki hissed as Tony kicked him hard on his knee.

"Jarvis! Answer me!" Tony screamed as he was dropped back onto his feet.

"SILENCE!" Loki roared as he dragged the curse-screaming Tony to the center of the office."

"You fucking bastard! How dare you mess with Jarvis!" Tony yelled, alternately trying to break away from Loki and then when that didn't work, trying to punch him.

He was very much like an enraged toddler Loki thought despairingly. He had always known that Stark was unstable, and truthfully, he acknowledged that he was not one to harshly judge someone for this, as he had his own moments of '_unwise_' decision making. But no matter how brilliant the engineer was, what had Loki been thinking to pin his hopes of assistance on Stark. It was sheer madness, clearly, Loki had not been thinking properly either or he would have just taken the longer route. It was also fairly obvious to Loki that he had allowed wretched sentiment for the foolish man and Ms. Potts to cloud his judgment.

This, he thought angrily is why he hated having to work with others. If it wasn't his affection for Thor and tolerance for Thor's despicable friends ruining everything, it was Tony Stark and his baggage. Despite his pride in his decision making capabilities, it was becoming apparent that he was no better than Thor some days.

Loki had been thinking, absent mindedly fending off various blows from Tony and ignoring his litany of curses when his attention was caught by the man screaming, "Mother fucker, let me go!"

_What?! Surely he didn't say that?_

He stuck the engineer's forehead with his other hand, little sizzles of blue flame exiting from his fingertips, "You will shut your mouth until Ms. Potts speaks to you."

Tony's brown eyes widened and locked on to Loki's, the muscles in his face rippling as he tried to open his tightly sealed lips. His struggles, which had momentarily stopped, renew with increased frenzy accompanied by his now muffled screaming.

"You will kneel here Stark and wait for Ms. Potts. You will do it now, for I have lost all patience in dealing with you." He said furiously, pushing Tony down to the floor. "You will save yourself a world of aggravation by kneeling _'right'_ now."

Which of course didn't work as Tony bounced back up like a child's ball, but Loki was not surprised or indeed unprepared.

"KNEEL!" Loki screamed, as power surged from him, dropping Tony to his knees and holding him there.

Loki ran agitated hands through his hair. His jaw tightened and the tension in those muscles ran down his neck to his shoulders. Glaring down at Tony with his chin raised, he smoothed his expression with visible effort until only his firmly held lips gave any indication of how enraged he was.

"I suggest," Loki said in a tightly controlled voice, "that in addition to slanders and insults you offered me, you also think about what you implied about Ms. Potts' fidelity. Perhaps if you are contrite enough, _'SHE'_ may forgive you."

Ignoring Tony's furious stare, and the muted sounds escaping him, Loki turned and headed towards the door leading to the hallway.

"Jarvis please make sure Ms. Potts knows that Mister Stark will not be able to move until ten minutes after she has left the building. Also ten minutes after she has left, you can cancel Protocol 'Spoiled Brat' and return control of your systems to Mister Stark and reinstate all of his authorizations. Acknowledge please."

"Understood sir, I will pass on your message and return system control to Mister Stark, ten minutes after Ms. Potts has left the premises."

"Thank you Jarvis. You have always been most helpful."

"You are quite welcome sir."

"Sir," Jarvis continued, causing Loki to pause just before he exited the room. "Ms. Potts is asking to speak to you sir."

And what a fun conversation that would be right now, he thought. No, best to let her and Stark argue in peace. He would no doubt speak to Ms. Potts some other day.

Please convey my apologies to Ms. Potts and inform her that I have to go now. He turned and threw a nasty smirk at Tony. "Tell her that Stark has forbidden me the building and told me never to return, so I think it is best I take my cat and leave."

Stark was already glaring daggers at him, but who knew that Stark's glare could intensify that much more when Loki announced he was taking Drífa?

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Notes: As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated... :D

Please - Looking for anyone who could give me hand translating this into an **Icelandic Language**. The phrase is – Misbegotten son of disease-ridden whore.

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance. I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.


	10. Chapter 10 - Pepper Frowns

**Chapter # 10 – Pepper Frowns**

Loki had left. Tony knelt on the stupid tan Berber carpet, unable to get up, unable to scream his frustrations, furiously unable to do anything but think about what had just happened. There was of course a small voice trying to tell him that he was lucky to be alive right now, not that he had really been afraid that Loki would kill him. And through the clamor of all his other thoughts, that annoying voice pointed out that the only reason he hadn't been afraid was because Loki was indeed a friend.

Not that Tony didn't try to drown that voice out with his other various grievances'. But the trifling idea that his biggest complaint might possibly have been an error on his part was a bitch. If that was true, while Tony would be really relieved in one way, but it was going to totally suck in so many others.

He should have talked to Pepper. Well, okay. He had asked her, "Pep, how long has this been going on?" but Tony had the sneaking suspicion that perhaps he should have asked her for a bit more information before blindly stumbling out of her office. Tony shuddered, forcing back the bile that threatened to choke him. No. Not details. If it was true he definitely did not want the details. But rather he should have asked her for clarification and possibly made sure that their definition of 'this' was the same. Yeah, clarification, that would have been better.

Going down to his lab and knocking back so much damn scotch, before coming up to see Loki might have, in hindsight, been another error he made this evening. Of course that one paled when put alongside his bright idea of putting on the suit and blowing away Loki's office door before attacking him. If Loki was telling him the truth and not even the alcohol fumes in his brain could convince him that this was not a high probability. Then he had just totally fucked himself. Not that Loki wasn't a fucking jerk for ratting him out to Pepper, first by calling to complain about this afternoon's little adventure and then by sending her those recordings of Tony accusing the two of them of fucking around on him. Oh and not to forget, high jacking his AI and making it impossible for Tony to order Jarvis to delete them before she could see them. He was a class one jerk for sure.

Tony had plenty of time to mull over all of his dark thoughts, since it didn't seem like Pepper was in any hurry to come see him. He glanced up at the wall clock, wondering what he would do if Pepper just left the building, without coming to see him. He would be able to move after ten minutes, but he would not want to bet that he was going to be able to open his lips until he she actually spoke to him. That would be so wrong. But still, in the end he might actually deserve it; he had made really hurtful accusations, possibly unfounded, against two people who were his friends.

I am such a dick Tony thought. After another ten minutes he slumped down, rubbing his hands though his hair before finally clenching them together and letting the drop into his lap. I am so totally fucked, he thought tiredly, and I have been for years.

OoooO

After forever, which was actually only a bit more than an hour, a small scuffing noise in the hallway made him glance up to see Pepper looking at him like he was crazy. Well it could have been his expression; painful grimaces were not a good look for him. But Tony wondered how long she had been standing there watching him try to ward off a low grade panic attack by hugging his injured side while rocking back and forth.

Tony tried to say several stupid things like, 'where the fuck have you been', 'so did you or did you not do the nasty with Loki while we were engaged', or 'what in the hell _'years'_ were you talking about', but fortunately, since she hadn't spoken to him yet, the spell still held his lips sealed shut.

"Tony?" Pepper called tonelessly.

Tony gasped and pitched forward with relief as his lips unsealed, "Oh Pepper, thank god you're here," he told her palms on the carpet to keep from falling flat on his face. "I don't feel so hot Pep, I think I may have a cracked rib. Or maybe it's just bruised, but damn it hurts. And my knees are freaking killing me; I am too old for this crap."

Pepper started back a pace and from the looks of her these were not the first thing she expected to hear him say. Then she gifted him with one of her very memorable 'Pepper Frowns'.

"And how did you bruise your ribs Tony?" Pepper snapped looking far more serious than she had a few hours ago when he was in her office. But hey. Serious is good, Tony will take that; if she was serious she wasn't too mad. "You were fine when you left my office. And besides, if you heal so fast now, why is it giving you trouble?"

Tony's thoughts were totally hijacked by her last question. He used his shirt tail to wipe the sweat from his forehead and temples, stalling while he pondered this. Why did it hurt so bad? He'd had cracked ribs before and so he did know that they felt like this, but he was stronger now, with better pain control and all… Unless… Unless the son of bitch had actually fractured one or more of them… and it just felt like a cracked rib to his immortally enhanced body. Well okay, so he might not feel anything at all here in a couple of hours, but damn it hurt right now.

"Tony?" Pepper impatiently brushed a loose stand of her hair back as she recalled his attention to the discussion at hand.

Oh yeah, hours. Tony looked at Pepper with narrowed eyes, "Why did it take you over an hour to get here? Almost an hour and a half," he asked accusingly. "Why so long Pepper? You stop to do your nails or something? Did Loki stop down to talk to you?"

Pepper's lip curled and a decidedly unpleasant look entered her eyes. "Oh don't you start on me Anthony Stark. You are not going to make me feel guilty about how long it took me to get here." She entered the office, and stared down at him with her armed tightly folded across her chest. "You're just damn lucky I just didn't decide to sleep on the couch in my office and let Doris find you here tomorrow morning."

Okay, maybe this was not the good serious Pepper, maybe this was a seriously mad Pepper. Tony rolled his eyes, could today have been any worse than this? Pepper's back stiffened and an outraged expression flowed over her face.

"And don't you _'dare'_ roll your eyes at me Anthony Stark! I am so angry with you right now, the temptation to start slapping you around while you are nailed to the floor is almost more than I can take, so you just back up the attitude mister." Pepper threw her head back and groaned in frustration before stepping closer and poking him hard on the side of his leg with the pointy toe of her high heel. "I'll have you know I have spent the last hour 'trying' to calm down before I said something we would both regret. And then the first words out of your mouth made that effort wasted."

Pepper paced around the room in agitation a bit before she spun one of the visitor chairs around to face Tony and plopped down in it, burying her head in her hands. Tony was not happy to see that her hands were trembling.

"How could you Tony?" she asked glaring at him while he tried to formulate some kind of answer for her. "How could you accuse me of having an affair while we were engaged?" She looked away, angry tears started welling, and her voice took on a husky note.

"How many times have you embarrassed me with your cheating? And now…" her voice gave an angry little hitch. "Now you came up here with no proof to tell a friend of ours that you thought I was the kind of person who would do something like that. And worse! With no proof at all, you accused him of being the person I was cheating with."

Apparently too restless to remain seated, Pepper came and stood in front of him, her hands clenching and unclenching as fine tremors ran through them. "And then if the embarrassment of you telling that to our friend wasn't enough, you attacked him. You were lucky you didn't kill him. Hell Tony, you were luckier that he didn't kill you."

"Pepper—"

"What kind of person says stuff like that," She demanded riding right over his attempt to speak a note of despair edging in. "What kind of person would actually _'do'_ stuff like that? Have sex with their friend's fiancé?"

Tony's eyes went wide and he swallowed down the retort he has been about to make, suddenly unable to look at her, he jerked his head down and stared at his hands. That censorious voice in his head, the one he was always trying to drown with alcohol scolded him yet again. You do stuff like that, it said. And not just once, you've done it multiple times, you've slept with the girlfriends of your college buddies, the wives and fiancés of your business associates and your co-workers. He scrubbed his hands roughly across his face as that traitorous voice went on to point out that he didn't really even have co-workers, he had employees. As in people who depended upon him for their livelihood.

And yes he had slept with several of his employees' wives and girlfriends… It wasn't the person involved per say, it was that Tony did love a challenge, even if it was morally ambiguous. After all, just because he pursued, didn't mean they had to let him catch them. Sometimes it even meant stepping out of his comfort zone and nailing the occasional good looking boyfriend or husband. Which could be interesting on occasion, but not one of Tony's normal kinks, unless the whole forbidden challenge thing was the kink he craved. His lawyers had lots of experience making those lawsuits go away; they were probably the only people he knew who were glad that Tony drank. After all, alcohol, especially on both sides made his defense just a bit easier and the payouts a bit cheaper. Maybe this is why he didn't have many friends, he thought, at least none that had significant others.

Pepper crouched down in front of him, but he refused to meet her eyes. "I forgot," she said tiredly, I forgot about how Jason and Nichol spilt up right before their wedding… and the others."

Yeah, there had been fewer of those episodes since Afghanistan, but even so, Jason's Nichol was possibly not one of his finer moments. "I'm a bad man Pepper, you know that." He grumbled, half ashamed and half defiant. "And, yeah, I thought it might be possible," he huffed an unhappy laugh, grimacing a bit and holding his side tighter when that caused a twinge. "Hell, Pepper, why wouldn't I think he would do it, I've done it several times."

Tony took a deep breath, and then continued in a more censorious voice, his brows lowering as he stared up at her. After all this whole mess was mostly her fault. "And I did ask Pepper, you said it had been going on for years. What more proof did I need? If it was years, we would have been engaged then. Come on, what was I supposed to think?"

"Yes! Yes, him 'helping' me," she yelled, flinging her hands up to either side of her head, fingers outstretched in exasperation. "Helping me! With work! Not banging his boss into a headboard while she's engaged to his friend!"

"I know you wouldn't do that to me."

"How does that thought process even work then Tony? Could you explain that to me? If you know I wouldn't cheat on you, how could you think that he could have had sex with me? I may not be the genius in the room, but I am seeing an error in logic here. Do you see it? Or do I have to lay it out for you?"

"Yeah, so. I was just mistaken," he said with more than a little bit of a whine in his voice. "I misunderstood. I'm sorry Pepper."

"You're sorry, Tony?" Pepper stood up and started pacing, "Like you have been sorry all these years every time you do something without thinking it through? How is your being sorry going to help me with this situation? Tony, this has got to stop, you're a genius for Christ's sake, how can you not see where your actions will take you."

"And more importantly, what are you going to do now?"

OoooO OoooO OoooO

Yes, everyone who predicted that Tony would have a little bit of a head problem was correct... as were the people who guessed that he was flat wrong.

So who wants to guess what he's going to do now?

Notes: As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated and will result in updates being more than once a week. They make my tired little fingers happy. :)

Also still looking for anyone who could give me hand translating this into an Icelandic Language. The phrase is – Misbegotten son of disease-ridden whore.

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.


	11. Chapter 11 – Alone Time

**Tony acknowledges an old friend, sort of... Pepper is still not happy. **

**OoooO OoooO OoooO**

**Chapter #11 –Alone Time**

Oh Tony usually could see where his actions would take him, no matter what he lies he told to others. It was just that he seldom cared. He was fucked up like that. He was generous, and could be kind, but he could also be a real dick, treating people like dirt and blind to anything except what he wanted. Especially when he was drunk and he had to admit he was quite often drunk.

He had, occasionally when things had gone really bad, debated with himself if he drank because he liked the taste and the way it relaxed him, or if it was because it gave him an easy excuse to do things he knew he shouldn't do, but was going to anyhow.

He was still undecided, so for now he was sticking with both. He liked the taste and the warm feelings alcohol provided and he liked that he could use it as an excuse to do any stupid or vile thing he could think of.

He was just that kind of jacked up actually.

OoooO

In the weeks that followed, what Tony had come to privately refer to as his 'Mega Big Norse Fuckup', he and Pepper had talked several times and the phrase, 'Well have you fixed it yet?' started most of those conversations. Tony wondered how he had never realized that Paper was a nag. So, okay. He had realized that in the past, but he had never realized that she was the Queen of All Nags, who knew? He had Jarvis order her a scepter with her title inscribed on the handle. It was a really nice scepter, tastefully done and a very thoughtful gesture on his part, but for some reason when he presented it to her, she did not appreciate it.

Not only was Pepper the Queen nag, she was an ungrateful too he told himself looking at scepter that had been immediately tossed into her trash can. Tony sighed, he had been hoping for at least space in one of her desk drawers, even if he couldn't get a place of honor on her trophy display area. He glared at the offending shelf; he was seriously going to have to have an explosion go off in her office one of these days, perhaps when she was away on travel and accidently like break that damn bowl.

"Well? Have you fixed it yet?" Pepper asked with exasperation.

"Fixed what? My suit? Yeah, it's good, hell, it better than good, it is marvelous, it would have to be, I made it." He grinned cheekily, but watched her closely, lest Evil Pepper decide to come out and play.

"Tony…" She warned her expression and her posture as severe as a max security prison matron's.

Really, he thought, she needs to ditch the red and just start wearing black leather. And chrome, lots of chrome… And maybe boots, tall ones… With lots of shiny metal fancy work.

"Tony!" She snapped, "Are you even listening to me?"

And just like that Tony's little foray into fantasy collapsed and the reality of a pissed off Pepper poured down on him like a cold heavy November rain.

"I can't even get a message through to him Pep," at her incredulous stare, he huffily defended himself. "Oh, no. Don't give me that look. I tried. Really, really tried. But Prince Petulant is having none of it.

"You should call him," Tony decided to see if whining would work. "He'll answer you."

"Do you think I haven't?" she shot back at him. "As embarrassing as this has all been, I did try to talk to him. All I got back was a text message that he would be in contact with me, '_eventually_'. Every single call, text, and email anything gets me that same text message." She frowned. I don't even know if he has seen or heard my messages or if this is just some kind of message rule reply that kicks back to me automatically, while sticking my message in a holding file." She glared at Tony, "You of all people know how I hate to be ignored. I'd be mad, but maybe he's just embarrassed too."

"So, I'm blaming you." She finished with a tiny shrug.

_Great,_ thought Tony. _Not only am I getting blamed for the stuff I do, but now I am going to get a ration of shit for whatever the god of assholes does. There just is no justice in this world_.

Which of course is when that annoying, fucking voice decided to chime in and remind him that if there was justice in this world, someone most likely would have killed him years ago. Or at least more recently had him arrested for unprovoked assault. Thank God, the big one, not the two he knew personally, that Asgardians didn't really take advantage of Earthgard's legal system.

Even in the midst of these thoughts, another one horned in and he started thinking that perhaps he needed to name this voice, kinda like how lonely kids name their invisible friends. Only of course with his luck, he got the annoying kid no one wanted to play with as his inner buddy.

Figures.

"Tony!"

"Do you think maybe you could try to concentrate and stay with me for just five minutes please? I know you like to escape having to deal with relationships, but trust me when I say you are going to have to fix this thing with Loki and fix it soon. "

Tony slumped in his chair and scowled, "It's not fair, you should do it. He likes you better, worse you like him better than me. We've been friends for years, but you prefer his company over mine."

Pepper rested her forehead in the palms of her hands. She was gently shaking her head back and forth as if trying to massage the pain away. After a few moments, she raised her head and looked seriously at pouting man sitting across for her.

"Tony, did you ever think that maybe, just maybe, I appreciate someone who is not trying to make my life more difficult. Someone who will actually agree to help me if I ask and more importantly, follow through so I don't have to worry about at least that one thing? How often have you done that? Have you ever since you joined the Avengers?"

Smoothing a hand down his 'Done with Mirrors', Aerosmith tour t-shirt, Tony fought against the jealousy that threatened to wash over him, as he fingered the logo on the faded navy shirt. "Come on Pep, you know I don't have a lot of time anymore. Heck if I'm not in my lab, I'm doing a mission or at some damn meeting or training."

"Yes, and you make time for that, but not for duties you need to take care of for your own company. Not only that, but your frequent irrational outbursts make even the simplest company endeavors harder than they should be." Pepper said in a calmly, but he knew that was a lie because her one hand was flat against the desk blotter, every tendon clearly visible, while the other tightly clutched a silver pen, tapping it end to end on her desk.

While it was true that he avoided company meetings like the plague, and hated to go to the social functions she always claimed were politically important, he didn't really think he was that unhelpful. He did design a lot of the stuff the company sold, and heck he even voted her in a new board member to help rein in that fractious group.

'Indeed you did,' said that crappy voice of his, which Tony decided on the spot, would hence forth and forever would be known as Morty Dickerson. Morty, because it was as unpleasant an entity as any stereotypical used car sales man he has ever seen TV and Dickerson, because… Well, Morty's a dick.

"And then," Morty continued, "You went and attacked him and now she doesn't even know if he is going to show up for the next meeting. He might resign for all she knows. Way to go jerk wad, fine help you turn out to be."

Tony sighed, it wasn't bad enough he had other people attacking his behavior, now his invisible friend was doing it. Tony would go pour himself a drink, but he just knew in his heart of hearts that Morty was a mean drunk.

"Am I boring you Tony?" Pepper asked coldly.

"What?" He looked up, focusing on Pepper. "Umm, I was just had a very odd thought. Sorry."

"Tony, you don't seem to realize, but with us branching out from weapons, we have a much larger group of relationships that have to be maintained. It's isn't just the ten or fifteen acceptable countries, with maybe six to twelve branches of government per country anymore." She folded her hands tightly together, looking at a point just over his one shoulder. "Stark International is in contact with dozens of countries, multiple states or providences in each country not to mention hundreds of cities and manufacturing facilities in those countries.

"And guess what Tony," She continued, but now her gaze was boring into him, as if the intensity of her stare, might actually help get her message across. "It's no longer just some career generals we're dealing with who're going to be there for ten or so years. We can't dine 'em and wine 'em and get a contract because we're their old buddy or we let them use our company box at some football games. No, for our municipal customers, every time there is an election we potentially have to start all over again. Will you think I'm exaggerating when I tell you that Stark International is a much more exhausting company to deal with compared to when you actually ran the company selling weapons to your military buddies?"

Tony decided to admit she had a point, if only to shut up any comments from Morty. "Yeah… I guess I can see that Pep."

"And now, before you screwed this up for me, I had someone that I could begin to delegate some of this crap to, someone who has spent more years dealing with political infighting than the entire senate put together, and you attacked, slandered and fired him. Do you understand, just as Stark International's CEO, why I am angry about this?"

"Yeah… I guess," he said, giving her his best, 'I am such a sorry puppy look'.

"And it's not even just that Tony."

Tony eyed her warily, "How so Pepper?"

"If we are going to do this thing properly, do the whole get ready for the Mad Titan thing, then this is going to be a really long term project. You don't think in the long run it would help to have someone who had the long term interest in the company working for us? Someone we could absolutely rely on since their goals and ours are the same? Someone who actually has experience in having a project extend over a few centuries."

"Hell," Tony grumbled, "I bet he's had practical jokes that took that long for him to spring." Smug git, he thought to himself.

Although possibly not quietly enough, even in his head since Pepper was giving him the evil eye.

"Anyhow Tony, can you see why I might need his help and even prefer it to yours?"

"Well, he is better at putting up with crap, that's for sure," Tony groused. "He probably had centuries of experience in that from living in Asgard." Pepper looked steadily at him. "Yeah, okay. I can see that he might be a lot more help than I've been lately." He shot her a wry smile, "And I can see that you might have more on your plate, administration wise that I did when I ran the company."

"And?" she prompted

"And what?" he asked. "Pep, I'm telling you, I honestly have tried to talk to him. Repeatedly. Heck, I got stuff he was working on in the lab that needs finished. Do you have any idea what a pain it is going to be to reverse engineer his stuff? He really needs to quit using runes speak or whatever the fuck he uses to write his preliminary progress notes."

"Tony, please, please don't take this the wrong way, but I could care less what issues you are having. You'll figure it out, you always do. I just want my budding Chief Operating Officer and fellow board member back."

Yeah, well did Pepper ever think how boring the lab had been these last two weeks without a lab buddy. Hell no, the only thing she was worried about was her administrative crap. Tony had just opened his mouth and was about to point this out to her, in a fairly sarcastic way when she continued.

"Tell Loki if he comes back he'll be in the main offices when he gets back that might make him more agreeable. Bigger office, a personal assistant, out of sight, out of mind, so to speak for any future S.H.I.E.L.D adventures."

What?!

"Umm, Pepper, he was hired to work in the lab." Tony pointed out

Pepper gave Tony a tired smile, "You didn't even want him in the lab Tony."

"Yeah, well that was then."

"And then you fired him. After you made him go superhero-ing against his wishes and contract. Oh and then attacked him for no good reason."

"Look Pep, did I or did I not have Jarvis get you a bunch of good-boy hero Loki pictures for your public relations people?

Pepper examined her nails, not looking at Tony. But while her lips were pressed in a thin line, Tony could swear that the very ends of them titled up in the tiniest of smirks. She glanced at her shelf, but looked slyly at Tony out of the corner of her eye, "They were really good pictures."

Tony preened.

"But," She continued softly, "You fired him as a researcher, so when he comes back, I want him to be in the top office as my Chief Operating Officer in training."

"Nah-uh. I don't think so. Lab God knows magic, and he is the only one in thousands of years who has actually dealt with a Titian, he knows what all is in Asgard's super duper magic weapon horde, and he's the only one who has a chance of knowing how Chitauri tech works, I just can't figure this stuff out without him," Tony told her smugly, throwing down his arguments like a poker player proudly laying down a straight flush, king high.

Pepper eyed him ruefully and Tony smiled, until a dangerous light appeared in her eyes causing his smile to evaporate even before she spoke, "No Tony. Loki has to become involved in the business and politics side of the company; we are going to have to deal with lots of that sooner rather than later. He needs to start meeting with heads of state and industries; you know we will need the cooperation of others to get this thing done."

And Tony did know that, he may not have wanted to admit it, but he did know that things were going to get complicated. But that still didn't mean he was going to give in on this.

Then Pepper then threw down her own straight flush, ace high. "Then once he has figured out our politics, we need him for this whole immortal thing. He has connections; he knows where the alliances are, where the bodies are buried. Loki was trained to be a chief advisor to a nine realms kingdom. He studied directly under the person who we will most likely have to deal with the most. I'm the CEO of a single company and you are an inventor. Do you honestly think we have the knowledge and experience to keep earth out of trouble once the other realms start interacting with us?"

Pepper leaned forward and asked softly, "Do we?" She waited for a minute in case he wanted to chime in, which he didn't really, not right now. Then she continued.

"Tony, we have a lot of planning to set in place and it has to start soon. Maybe we could arrange it so he can work with me part time on this mad scheme and with you part time. But we don't have a lot of time to waste before getting started, we don't know how long this is going to take and we don't know how much time we actually have. So it's better than we don't waste any of it."

Okay, so Tony hated when she made sense like that. He also hated that in her own Pepper way, she was able to cut through the petty detail crap and see the steps needed to get to the big picture part of a project. Pepper may not have the test scores to say she was a genius, but honestly, Tony had never met anyone who could prioritize and plan like Pepper... Well maybe one other person… If a god could really be referred to as a person.

They sat there in silence a few minutes, both wrapped up in their own thoughts, and then Pepper asked him quietly, "Not even taking into account that he doesn't want you to be giving him orders, do you honestly think Loki is going to have time to just hare off and help you with the Avengers, even if it isn't all the time, while working both the business political side and the research lab side?"

Okay, Tony thought guilty; we circle right back to the main issue. "Well about that Pep, I was thinking something a little more…"

Pepper stared at him in dismay, "Oh, Tony. Seriously? You were not thinking of trying to get him as a full time avenger were you?" She let out an exasperated sigh. "I need him to help with politics; you want him to help in the lab. When do you figure he has time to be a super hero? He may be a god, but I am pretty sure he has to eat and sleep sometimes."

"Look Pep, it may be nothing especially if that asshole Fury doesn't send us a future services contract." Tony stopped frowning and thought for a minute. "Without that, I swear unless the world is in danger of ending I'll never call him again."

Pepper cocked her head, raising a skeptical eyebrow, "And if he does send it?" She asked.

He dropped his eyes to the rug, "I won't risk upsetting him again, if I think it's that important, I'll have Jarvis conference call you or something." He looked up at her and asked in a small voice, "Okay?"

Pepper smiled, and Tony felt his heart lighten a bit. He hated when she was upset with him.

"That's fine Tony," She said getting up to come around her desk towards him. "I think I can work that with him." But then she pulled him up out of his chair and looked at him with suspiciously bright eyes. "Unless you think your life or your freedom is at risk. If that happens Tony, you call him, you call him immediately and I will fix it later. Don't you ever risk yourself, do you hear me?"

Tony folded Pepper into his arms and they just stood there for a long time. Even if Tony could have forced words past the lump in his throat, what was there to say?

**OoooO OoooO OoooO**

Notes: As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated, and make me post more often than once a week. NEXT WEEK - Darcy! Loki! Bare Chest! And cranky cat! Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance. I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only. 


	12. Chapter 12 - Midnight Visitor

**Chapter #12 – Midnight Visitor - **Coding, presents from Stark, late night visitors that disturb the cat... Oh and Tony has a melt down.

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Returning to Midgard after an absence of almost two years, Loki finds that as desperate for change as he has been, some changes will take time to get used to, especially when they concern his relationship with Tony and Pepper. Darcy lays down her taser, momentarily and decides to start wielding the internet to the dismay of both the fallen Prince of Asgard and S.H.I.E.L.D. This sequel is 75,000 words long and will update regularly.

OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO

Drífa was a bit disturbed; it has been quieter this week than she is used to. Accustomed as she is to having the lower intelligence robots play with her when she drops various toys in front of them, to Jarvis opening up the lab doors for her when she wants to visit Doctor Crane and Ms. Krebs in the outer offices and having free rein to go up to the penthouse garden via Jarvis controlled elevator and doors when she wants to sit in the sun, staying home all day with only a small patio to lounge on is a pretty boring for her. Of course she most likely also misses seeing Stark, who she has spent as much time living with as Loki. Face it; living with Stark while he was in Asgard for the last two years, spoiled her rotten.

All in all, Drífa makes a most demanding companion as Loki works on various override and privacy programs that can be slipped into Jarvis, just in case. He smiles to himself at the thought of Stark going crazy looking over Jarvis' programming line by line trying to find out how Loki was able to slip in an override command. He has a few more hidden in there, but isn't really worried. Even on the off chance that Stark manages to find and fix the all the ways he had previously hacked the AI, there are other ways to get Jarvis to take in a command. In fact one of his previous side projects had been to protect Jarvis from anyone but Loki hacking him in those more esoteric ways.

He smiles as he thinks about how strange it is, to automatically, viscerally even, think of Jarvis as male. Jarvis has several times tried to contact him on Starks behalf without success. Not that he wasn't appreciative of Stark safeguarding his home and more importantly his library while he was gone for those two years, but one of the first things he did when he got home from his fight with Stark, was to make Jarvis channel through his own more limited AI. This allowed Jarvis to continue to work as security but only under limitations set by Loki. The gateway program definitely prohibited Stark receiving any information about his apartment while Loki was at present. Something Stark was doubtless well aware of by now.

Loki smiled grimly as he wrote. No matter if he returned to Stark International or not, Loki foresaw several interesting code battles in his future, since Stark was not only unable to resist a challenge, but was most likely determined to hack his system as completely as Loki had hacked Jarvis. It was indeed a shame, for Stark, that Loki's system wasn't just code running through a machine, but rather the possession of his system by a spirit that monitored the wards on his building, his apartment and his AI. In exchange for protection from more powerful beings in the wild, Mimis had a safe haven and Loki had a fire wall that was unable to accept outside instruction unless it came from directly from him. Since Mimis knew, with every fiber of its being, what and who Loki was, and in a way that could not be counterfeited, no outside commands could be snuck onto his server. His eyes flitted over to the small granite gargoyle statue, with its vaguely catlike face and tall proud bat like ears, sitting on the shelf across from the door. Loki had allowed Mimis to pick its own exterior form, not that it needed it, but just something to make the spirit more comfortable, someplace for it to rest and center itself. It would be interesting to see Stark try to code around an entity that had been present for thousands of years.

OoooO

The last few days had been just as quiet, the only calls he has received have been from Ms. Fogal and his stockbroker. Mimis repelled various, increasingly ingenious attempts from Jarvis to contact Loki though the installed security system and protected Loki's much more limited system from him as it blocked all calls and refused to take messages from Jarvis, anyone at Stark International and anyone at S.H.I.E.L.D, including ones made with their private cell phones. While he didn't data dump anything belonging to Stark, despite the temptation to copy Jarvis' source code, the stuff Stark hacked and stole from others was fair game for Loki to rummage through and copy as he saw fit. This of course included all known phone numbers for S.H.I.E.L.D personnel, important business and government officials and a tiny liberty on his part, the known numbers of Stark International employees.

The courier he refused to buzz into the building eventually ended up at his stockbrokers the next day. The broker called him to let him know about the Stark International Preferred stock that was being transferred to him in exchange for unspecified work that he had done a few weeks ago for Stark International.

Which was… Unexpected. Generously unexpected at that, he wondered if the decision to send the stock was made before or after Stark dug himself into such a deep hole? Ah, well. He was sure he would find out eventually.

The calls from Ms. Fogal were mixed, one to ask if there was anything special he wanted for dinner next Wednesday and the other to get him on the phone so she could hand it off to Stark, who was apparently sitting in her kitchen. Points to Stark for being persistent even if he only got two words out, he hoped Stark enjoyed his evening talking to the gregarious old lady and wondered if Beau had driven him crazy demanding he play ball.

Loki had called Ms. Fogal back once Stark had left the building and explained to her that he wasn't taking any calls from Stark and would appreciate if she didn't contact Stark about his comings and goings. Which, as he suspected, Stark had indeed requested her to do. Loki also changed their dinner plans to a different night in a nice restaurant rather than one of her home cooked meals. He was sure she had mentioned the date and time he would be down there to Stark, and he did not trust Stark not to have placed something inert in her apartment that he could activate once he thought Loki was present. His system could make sure the wards blocked Stark from getting into the building again, but that would give Stark an unwanted insight into his capabilities. Better to let Stark into the building and just restrict him from getting off the elevator on his floor.

Just to be sure he was not taken unawares again; Loki activated his AI's access to all the cameras in the surrounding neighborhood as well as all the public areas in and around his building. Mimis would alert him to Stark's presence, before he actually made it into the building in the future. All in all, except the complete and total betrayal of their friendship by Stark, Loki was content to use this bit of down time for his own projects. In fact the only other fly in the ointment, so to speak, was his worry that someone was screwing up the Iceland project. It was a small, relatively unimportant project, but he hated not being able to finish something once he started it.

OoooO

The insistent ringing of his door bell was interspersed with someone pounding on his door with their fist. Drífa was having a fit at the disturbance and Loki was actually wondering if for times like these, some small caliber machine guns a-la Stark shouldn't be installed, hidden in the hallway flanking his condo door. Loki groaned, running his fingers through his sleep tangled hair to straighten it as he walked towards the front door. What time was it? He looked at the wall clock and saw that it was only a little past five in the morning. By the Norns he was going to kill whoever was at his door.

Loki stopped before he got to the entry hall, his brain finally waking up enough to tell him to check who was out in the hallway before he actually got anywhere near the door. So he blearily cast a cloud of smoke in front of him, and scried the hallway on the other side of his door.

Darcy Lewis.

Trailed by a disgusted Drífa he threw open the door in mid-pound and caught Darcy's fist as it came down for the next blow, stopping it from striking his bare chest.

As he released her hand, Darcy's eyes widened appreciatively and her other hand came up reflexively holding her ever present cellphone. She snapped his picture.

"Ms. Lewis?" he growled in a voice roughen from sleep as he backed up a few paces.

"Whoa Loki!" Darcy cooed, looking over the tops of her glasses. "Where is a pause button when I need it?" She kicked her small overnight bag into his entry hall, snapped another picture of him while he was again running a hand through his hair to get it out of his way and then pushed the door shut before walking around him.

"You know," she said raking her eyes down him as she passed, taking in his low riding pajama bottoms, "Very few people can do that, 'Just rolled out of bed but am still smoking hot' thing. But you…Loki, you have totally nailed it. Congratulations o'god of gorgeousness."

Rolling his eyes, Loki turned and followed her into the living room, dropping bonelessly on the opposite side of the couch from where Darcy had kicked off her shoes and was sitting cross legged, back against the couch arm, snapping yet another picture of him.

"Honestly, you don't even have a real case of bed head, just a _'delightfully tousled'_ look. How do you do that?" she asked unplugging her ear buds and stowed them in her blazer pocket before she began tapping away furiously at her phone. "Is it like a god thing? No, it can't be. I've seen Thor in the morning, and the boy gets bed head from Valhalla."

"Why?" he groaned, eyes half shut.

What, he wondered, had he ever done that that he deserved this? He'd been awake for at least the last two days or was it three? He had been putting the final polish on his 'Don't Watch Me Jarvis' program and had only just gone to bed, what? An hour and a half ago? Perhaps, two hours ago at the most.

"It must be a Loki thing," Darcy mussed still tapping away on her phone.

"Why are you here?" he mumbled sleepily.

"I'm here to put in some applications; podunk land gets sucky flight times and connections. So this is when I could get here. Clara invited me to stay with her for a few days, but I didn't want to wake her at this early, she's an old lady, she needs her sleep."

Loki wondered which of his neighbors had buzzed the irritating child into the building. But perhaps he unjustly maligned them; the brat was capable of picking a lock, climbing over a fence or threatening someone with her taser into letting her follow them through the door.

"Darcy," he closed his eyes and laid his head on the back of the couch. "Do you forget? I'm several centuries older than Ms. Fogal and yet you woke me."

"Yeah? Well, god years don't count like old lady years." Came her unrepentant reply. "Besides, I need to stay on her good side. If I actually find a job, I might need a place to stay until I can get an apartment."

"But it's okay to annoy me?" he mumbled. "There is no justice in this realm, I swear… Just go…" Not opening his eyes, he waved a hand dismissively, "The guest room is down the hall… Lie down or something until normal people are…" Loki yawned, "Awake."

Loki lifted his head, watching her with barely open eyes as she climbed off the couch to get her overnight bag and then taking advantage of her absence, he stretched out on the couch too tired to get back up and go in his own room. He barely stirred as the other annoyance in his house, the furry one, stretched out on the couch beside him.

Several hours later he woke to find a note tucked into his hand, telling him that both brats were downstairs visiting Ms. Fogal and that Darcy needed a letter of recommendation from Lucas Laufey, Stark International Board member, to take to her interviews tomorrow.

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Tony knew he didn't deserve to have Pepper in his life. Every time he thought he had his shit together enough to be the kind of person she could stay with, he screwed up. The worst part was, no matter what he claimed to Pepper and Rodney, he did it on purpose. How fucked up was that? He, Tony Stark just couldn't take being responsible, being accountable, being… an adult.

Every time he would run, from responsibility, from adulthood, from his own personal feelings. At one point in time or another he had pushed everyone away and crawled into the bottom of a bottle to hide.

Tony looked around, trying to figure out where he was. He had woken up this morning after a restless night, half remembered dreams of fighting with Pepper, fighting in Afghanistan, fighting the Chitauri and he had simply thrown on the clothes he had worn the night before and fled his tower. Tony looked up at the sky, the sun showed it was well into the afternoon, so he must have been walking for a couple of hours. Well one good thing, at least he hadn't taken the suit or one of his cars, who knows where he would have been by now? Hell, if he had taken the suit he could have been over some damn no fly zone in another country for all the attention he had been paying to his surroundings.

Now that he was paying attention, he realized that he was at Madison and 106th Street and that his feet hurt. Crap, he didn't think there were any Starbucks over this far. Tony grimaced, and headed into the drug store he saw on the next block. Starbucks was Starbucks. He came out a few minutes later with a couple of bottles of Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino, okay not his normal tipple, but any caffeine in a storm hey? He made a left on 107th and decided to head towards the park, the reservoir was calling him, or rather the benches alongside of it were.

Okay, getting in to some serious shit now. It was one thing to think, '_yeah I can save the world, cause hey, I've already done that_'. But now, this time. It's going to take more than a few bombs and a shiny suit. Before was play time, now the adults are talking and it's time for the kids to go play in the yard while they get everything settled. And that is when it stuck him, he was not yet sitting at the adult table.

Loki and Pepper were at the big people table, he was just the annoying kid who kept bugging the adults while they were busy doing serious shit. I never really wanted to sit at the adult table he realized, so this is what happens. I either have to grow up, or let someone else make all the big decisions, while I concentrate on what color to paint my bike. Okay. Serious hyper ventilate time now. This is it Stark, what are you going to do? Man up and save your planet or keep being a fuck up and maybe interfere with the stuff that is necessary to do it.

Tony's chest was suffocating him. Nothing had ever hit him this hard, not his parent's deaths, not Obadiah trying to kill him, not being kidnapped by the ten rings, not even when he almost died. That was all personal, he could muddle through that, fuck it up however he pleased, it only affected him and maybe a few of the people closest to him.

But this, he couldn't even look at the kids walking down the street without feeling guilty that someday their children might die, because he couldn't 'man up' no matter how necessary it was. It was a horrible responsibility that he frankly didn't want any part of. The weight of what they were trying to do was crushing. It was so hard that Tony just sat there on this stupid bench, with his stupid head hanging down, with his stupid sunglasses trying not to make any noise, as his stupid tears ran down his face.

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As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated. :D

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.


	13. Chapter 13 - Music Sucks

A meeting of the Darcy Tony Mutual Admiration Society. NOT.

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Chapter #13 Music Sucks

Yesterday…

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away… '_Okay so maybe it was the day before yesterday that his troubles had been less.'_

Now it looks as though they're here to stay… '_Like a huge weight on my chest. Bigger than a gorilla, Hulk sized even'._

God the Beatles had written some depressing shit.

But then who was Tony to talk about other people being depressing when you considered the mental mess he was half the time.

Tony was freezing. Of course the fact that he had spent over an hour laying on a bench with the wind picking up might have something to do with it. He sat up and looked blearily around. It wasn't so much that it wasn't a nice day. It was, at least nice for early autumn, but the breeze coming over the reservoir wasn't helping. It really was a shame that the leaves hadn't fallen yet. There was nothing that said depression he mused, like dead leaves swirling around you like so many broken dreams.

Yep, he was just wallowing in it. He wondered when his life had gotten to the point where it rated a Justin Hayward song like Forever Autumn. Tony decided to sit up before he thought of any more depressing music to add to his own personal Broadway Musical. Besides he was cold.

"Okay Jarvis, I am back among the living. You got anything important for me?" Tony asked adjusting his ear piece that he just pulled from his jacket pocket. He rubbed his hands across the arms of his worn brown leather jacket, trying unsuccessfully to warm up. "Keeping in mind that I only want to know if I would consider it important, I don't care what level of importance other people might have put on their petty fucking problems."

"Understood sir. In that case I only have one item that you would consider important at this time." Jarvis' soothing voice washed over him, "I have a possible contact for Mister Laufey in Stark Tower at this very moment."

Tony straightened up.

"Really? Who?" he asked brows knitted in concentration, eyes unfocused as he tried to think who it could be.

"A Ms. Darcy Lewis. She is currently in the Human Resources office. Since she has a letter of reference from Mister Laufey they are asking her to wait until the department manager can interview her."

"Darcy Lewis?"

_'Who the heck is that?'_ Tony wondered as he quick-stepped over to the street looking for a cab, it didn't immediately ring a bell, but he could have sworn he had heard the name before.

"Yes sir. Ms. Lewis was an assistant of Doctor Foster until she graduated a few years ago."

"Wasn't she the one who Thor said kept tasering him? The one Loki gets to babysit Thor while he travels?"

"Yes sir that would be her." Jarvis replied.

"Jarvis call H.R. and tell them to stall her. I don't want her leaving until I get there." He paused thinking a minute. "Tell them to be discreet; don't let her know I'm coming."

"Of course sir."

Tony saw a cab crossing the intersection a short distance away and before it could pick up any speed, he hopped out in front of it waving his arms. The cab braked hard, rocking to a stop a few feet away from him.

"Are you crazy?! The cabby screamed at him through the windshield, before Tony dashed around and tried to wrench open the door.

"Get away from my cab! I'm on my way to pick up a fare you moron!"

"Unlock the damn door. I'm Tony _'Fucking'_ Stark and I need to get to Stark Tower right away."

The cabby started, narrowing his eyes to look closely at Tony. "What about my fare? I just can't ignore them to drive off with you; my dispatcher will have a fit!"

_'Oh my fucking god,'_ Tony thought rolling his eyes as he dug his wallet out of his back pocket, took out a hundred dollar bill and slammed it to the driver's side window for the cabby to see. _'I am totally surrounded by idiots.'_

"Look Einstein, take me to Stark Tower, get your hundred and just tell them you got hung up in traffic or something. It really isn't that hard to figure out," Tony growled, gritting his teeth until he heard the door lock click open.

Scrambling into the back seat, Tony shoved the money through the slot before barking, "Stark Tower. Get us there double fast without us dying and there's an extra fifty for you. Get us killed and my company will be suing your great grandchildren."

The cabbie laughed as his vehicle shot forward as if it had been launched from a giant sling shot.

Tony barely had time to recover from being thrown back across the seat and to grab more money out of his wallet before he could see his tower in the distance.

Staggering into the lobby, he stumbled into the open elevator that Jarvis had been holding for him. Ignoring the startled looks of those already in the compartment he called out, "Make it fast Jarvis," just as the elevator doors slid closed.

There was some consternation when the elevator bypassed all the floors that had been selected, but no one said anything to Tony. Which was good, it was his tower, his elevator and they all worked for him, so he didn't want to hear any shit off of anyone.

He really wasn't in the mood.

"Where's she at Jarvis?" Tony called as he rocketed out of the elevator.

"Go left sir, she is in the H.R. Manager's office right now."

Tony breathlessly slid to a halt in H.R.'s outer office. Waving off the assistant, he hunched over trying to regain his breath, holding himself upright by resting his hands on his thighs. The startled assistant opened up her desk drawer and offered him a few folded paper towels, which he accepted, wiping the sweat off his face.

"Thanks," he muttered, tossing the damp towels in to a nearby trashcan. He smoothed his hair down and straightened his clothes, finally tugging his jacket back into place. He paused for a moment and examined the name plate on the wall. Melissa Myers. Okay.

Inhaling deeply a few times, he got his breathing back to normal and stepped forward to open the door.

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Two sets of surprised eyes met Tony's as he stepped into the office. "Hey, Darcy right?" he said looking over a busty brunette with glasses.

"I'll take that if you don't mind Melissa," Tony reached out his hand and took a resume and recommendation that the startled H.R. manager had been looking at. "Look," he told the woman, "why don't you go wait in the outer office? I'll call you in when I'm finished."

The manager, a short, plump, blonde woman, stood up and surrendered her chair to Tony. She smiled ruefully at Darcy, trying to make it seem like having the owner of the company shoo her out of her own office was an everyday occurrence. "Certainly Mister Stark, if you have any questions or need any assistance, just call me."

"Yeah sure," Tony responded absently, waving her absently towards the door, his attention now on the resume he was holding.

Like Tony Stark would need the assistance of a mid-level drone like her.

So not happening.

Tony glanced up briefly and considered the woman sitting in front of him. Dark brown hair twisted into a French knot of some sort, hazel blue green eyes, black rectangular glasses, a form fitting black skirt that stopped above the knee, short cropped matching jacket and a crisp white, traditionally collared blouse which did not do a lot to hide her… assets. Tony didn't think she was very tall, but with her sitting down, it was hard for him to tell how not-tall she might be.

Turning his attention again to her resume, he scoffed internally. Political Science, really? What bull. Why didn't she just get a degree in English Lit, it would have been equally useless. Of course at least an English Lit degree was more honest, they don't try to pretty it up by tacking the word science on something that has nothing to do with _'real'_ science. Experience? A couple of political campaigns that no one cared about, her gopher work while in college with the Foster chick and a stint as a daycare worker at the campus facility when she had started college.

Nothing.

But despite her obvious lack of a useful educational or decent work experience, she was not without interest. Heck, she was decorative in a dark pouty kinda way. Not that Tony would even consider tapping someone that came with a glowing recommendation from the god of crazy. Besides, if he remembered Thor's description of her correctly, this Lewis chick was her own special kind of crazy. Maybe that's why her and wack god got along.

He waited until the door closed and then aimed a practiced glittering smile at Darcy. "So… Ms. Lewis, exactly what kind of job are you applying for?"

Darcy quirked an eyebrow at him and appeared to be smothering an internal snicker. Her expression plainly indicated that she knew that the owners of international companies did not, as a rule, interview entry level employees. "A job that pays better than average and has decent benefits would be my preference. If the job is in my field, well that would be a bonus."

She looked at him over her glasses and smirked, almost certainly on the strength of her recommendation from Loki. Which Tony would admit, was a major plus when slapped on a resume like hers.

"Do you have a job like that available perhaps?" she asked.

Tony's smile deepened, "Amazingly enough. Yes. I think we just might have something for a person of your talents… and connections," he said.

_Connections,_ Tony thought, _being the only reason she was still in his damn building. _

Tilting her head a bit, Darcy pushed her glasses up, the smirk stretching into a wide sardonic smile. "Really Mister Stark?" she cooed, "Why that would be wonderful. I would do _'almost'_ anything to get my foot in the door at Stark International."

Okay, apparently Tony's inner-dialog was leaking onto his face a bit and the Darcy chick was picking up on it. Either that or she was super octane nutso. It was a toss-up really.

Darcy stretched out said foot which was at the end of a very shapely leg and regarded the spectator heel she was wearing. While not quite 'Fuck Me Pump' high, the four and a half inch heels were still quite impressive and looked good with the outfit she had on.

Tony's eyes gleamed a bit at both at the view and the reply. While he might not have technically been interested in her _per se_… he wasn't dead either.

"Except of course," she continued, "anything that would scuff my new heels. Because I have to tell you, I really, really love a good pair of heels." She fastened her changeable hazel eyes on his.

Hey. Tony could totally relate he was a big fan of high heels too. On the right person of course, from a certain vantage point…

"Or anything that would get me on the wrong side of Loki." Darcy shot him a mischievous look, almost winking at him. "After all, it would be incredibly stupid to get on his bad side. Wouldn't you agree?"

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As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated and let me know writing and posting this stuff is a good use of my time.

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.


	14. Chapter 14 - Interview Continues

Tony's interviewing skills do not improve. Darcy get testy.

Returning to Midgard after an absence of almost two years, Loki finds that as desperate for change as he has been, some changes will take time to get used to, especially when they concern his relationship with Tony and Pepper. Darcy lays down her taser, momentarily and decides to start wielding the internet to the dismay of both the fallen Prince of Asgard and S.H.I.E.L.D.

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**Chapter #14 – Interview Continues**

Tony's smile faded a bit at Darcy's last comment about how being on Loki's bad side could be dangerous.

"In fact," she continued pretending not to notice Tony's change of expression, "you would have to have Thor-like stupidity to do something like that." Darcy glanced off to the side through heavily lidded eyes as if thinking very hard about something that was just a bit too complicated for her cute little brain before she continued in a low sultry voice. "You know… To the best of my knowledge, I don't think I've ever met someone besides Thor that was quite that stupid."

Okay, Tony hadn't liked her much to start with and now he liked her less. They were very close to negative numbers here.

Darcy flicked her still hooded eyes back towards him, arching an inquiring brow, "Can you imagine how terrible that would be, to have to look in a mirror every day and know you were just that kind of dumb?"

Well okay then. Tony could totally see why the bitch had to carry a taser. He would bet big money that her mouth got her in more trouble than her ass could handle on a fairly regular basis.

"Heh. Yeah, that would be rough," Tony agreed, tapping his fingers in an irritated tattoo on her paperwork.

Darcy leaned forward, "So tell me Mister Stark, what kind of a position you have for someone with my talents… and connections?"

Since it was looking like he wasn't going to get anywhere offering her a job and hoping she would cooperate in gratitude, Tony figured he didn't have anything to lose by being direct. Hey, greed and self-interest worked more often than most people knew.

"Look Darcy." Tony gave her one of his most charming smiles. "I really need to get Loki to talk to me. Like yesterday even. And I am prepared to be pretty generous with whoever can make this happen." He pointed his index finger at her. "And I think it could be you. What would it take for you to help me make that happen? Tell me and I bet we can make a deal."

"So your being here has nothing to do with me and my job qualifications then?" Darcy asked, tilting her head and giving him a mocking innocent wide-eyed look. "I'm like super disappointed you know."

Tony blew a raspberry. Darcy was turning out to be a real bitch, so Tony saw no reason to even pretend to play nice.

"No offense kid," Tony said with a now nasty smile. "But you have no qualifications. All you have are connections. If I were you I would use them. Trust me; they are the only chance you have of ever being offered a job here."

Tony took out his tablet and tapped in a quick note to Jarvis.

"Seriously?" Darcy retorted with an amused laugh. Tony's eyes flew up to meet hers. Darcy's eyes were brimming with mischief, she lifted her brows inquiringly and said in a voice of concerned understanding, "I know you're old, but I'm telling you I _'do'_ have other assets. Of course…" She peered into his eyes intently. "Humm, I can see you don't have contacts." She shrugged, "And you old dudes are pretty vain, so I can see that you might not want to admit you need glasses."

Okay, so psycho bitch was now in negative number territory. Tony was pretty sure he would need a super computer to tote up how badly she was pissing him off before this interview was over. But first… If she thought she could diss him with no push back, she was very much mistaken. He was after all, Tony Stark.

Tony looked her up and down, openly dismissive, plainly allowing his distaste to show. "Trust me kid, you have no other _'assets'_ worth mentioning." He held up his tablet, "And while you may have gotten decent grades, you only did it by taking every cream-puff course that was offered in that third rate school you went to."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever," Darcy countered; easily shrugging off his efforts to upset her and firing back with her own dismissive attitude. "And you went to some big expensive school 'cause your daddy and his money got you in." She made a face and batted her eyes at him. "I am sooooo impressed.

Her expression abruptly turned feral, "Look old dude, we both know you're a misogynistic jerk with really poor fashion sense and non-existent social skills. So please don't try to lecture me on my supposed shortcomings. Not when you have so many of your own."

They glared at each other for a moment.

Darcy grinned lazily at him, "Hey! Do you know what they call a successful ladies man that isn't good looking?" She did a short drum roll on the edge of the desk with her hands. "A billionaire." At Tony's outraged look she explained. "After all, numerous zeros tacked on to the end of a bank statement do wonders for a guy in the looks department. As I'm sure you are aware."

Tony was actually stunned. It wasn't that no one had ever said stuff like that to him before; it was just than no one person had ever said all of those things. Well okay there _'had'_ been a few, but none of them were people he couldn't make fucking miserable by using either his brains or his money. Either the bitch was too stupid to know that pissing off a billionaire genius was dangerous to your happiness or… More likely she knew she had a Loki sized get out of trouble free card that she apparently wasn't afraid to use. He was thinking the latter. Hell, for all he knew she had a stack of the damn things. Because regardless of what he had _'said',_ her SAT scores, grades and class selections did indicate that she was pretty sharp.

Tony hated not having the upper hand in a snipe-fest, so she was really starting to get on his nerves now.

"Are you always this miserable at job interviews?" He demanded hotly, immediately pissed at himself for letting her know she had gotten to him.

"What can I say?" Darcy cooed, cocking her head and actually grinning at him. "You seem to bring out my 'A' game, cause you are just that much fun to mess with you know? But actually, no. When I am in a real interview, one being conducted by a real adult, I do try to behave. Besides, I think we can drop the whole interview pretense, 'cause this isn't one."

He glowered at her, "You know, I can make it so no one in this state offers you a job."

Darcy wrinkled up her nose, and narrowed her eyes in a way that was almost catlike, turning her blue green eyes into glittering self-satisfied slits. "Bring it on R2D2. I'd like to see what you can do." She taunted with childlike glee, leaning forward, as if preparing for battle.

_Did she just insinuate that Iron Man was a short round robot? _

"You are just a big assed baby; you have no idea what I could do," Tony told her tossing his tablet down on the desk in disgust.

"Hey! I do _'not'_ have a big ass. My ass, I'll have you know is perfect. I'd let you see it, so you would know how wrong you are, but I don't like you, so absolutely no tush flashing for Tony Stark."

_What in the hell was she going to say next_, Tony wondered. Rude, crude lip was his deal, why was she channeling him in his own office? Well okay, it wasn't _'exactly'_ his office, but it was at least in his building.

It had been forever since Tony had conducted interviews but he was certain he had never gotten the amount of lip this Lewis chick was giving him… even on the interviews where he had sat there sloshed to the gills and barely able to remain upright. Just as he was going to tell her to take her shitty attitude and leave, Darcy startled him by leaning forward and snatching her folder off the desk with one hand while she grabbed the loose resume and letter of recommendation with the other. She almost flipped his tablet off the desk as she yanked her paperwork out from underneath it

"But you know what; I don't want to work for you anyway," She said as she tucked her documents neatly in the folder and then stood, turning towards the door. "I can find another job in New York. Hopefully at a place where the owner is an adult."

Okay, now Tony knew she was insane. Anyone with two brain cells _'wanted'_ to work for Stark Industries, but hey, what did he care, it saved him from kicking her out of his building. Darcy was striding towards the door when he reluctantly came to the conclusion that she did have a good looking ass.

In fact, after a few moments he thought it was possibly even a great ass. He might not have had time to come to the second conclusion, but apparently the door was stuck and she had planted her feet to try to tug it open. The angle, the lights, the tight skirt, the heels and the way she spread her legs trying to get more leverage... Yep. As annoying as she was, he had to admit she did have a really fine ass… And her legs weren't bad either.

But as nice as Darcy's backside was and as appreciative as he was for the view, Tony still wanted her out of his building.

Unfortunately, before she could get the door open or he could decide to go help her, she turned to look at him.

Busted.

"Seriously Stark?" Darcy demanded as a slight flush tried to rise on his face. "Are you seriously checking out my ass? I mean I know it's great and everything and why wouldn't it be? When I think of all the time I spend every day doing hip-lifts and dumb-bell squats it pretty much has to be, but do you really think you should be checking out the ass of someone young enough to be your daughter?"

Tony thoughts, both those greatly appreciative of the view and embarrassed by being caught admiring it, sputtered to a stop.

_Daughter?! _

_What the Fuck? Again with the old thing. _

And besides, while Tony had been busted before for openly checking out chicks, what made it blush worthy was that those other women…And the occasional guy, had not been people who were going to rat him out to his former friend/former co-worker who was already hated him.

_Great. _

He'd unjustly accused Loki of banging his former fiancé and now Loki's little helper chick was going to tell him that Tony was rude to her and had been checking out her **ass**ets. Wonderful, why didn't he just go for the jerk trifecta and grope her?

"Hey? You. Stark. You want to help me open this damn door, or you just going to stand there and admire the view."

Darcy narrowed her eyes at him as another thought occurred to her and said in a low menacing voice, "Don't even think we are doing one of those kinds of interviews." She tucked the folder under her arm and started tugging with both hands on the door, calling over her shoulder, "I don't even want your damn job anymore. And even if I did, I wouldn't _'do'_ you to get it. I have standards you know. Admittedly not high, but a lot higher than you."

_Okay, now the brat was just being mean. _

"Listen psycho chick, I don't troll interviewees for my ass, I mainly pick them up in bars and charity events, just so you know. But even if I did, I don't do crazy. I have standards too you know."

Tony brushed her out of his way and twisted the door knob and pulled.

Unsuccessfully.

What the hell? Tony locked and unlocked it a few time, twisted, pushed and tugged, but the door remained stuck shut.

"Jarvis! Call someone from maintenance to get this damn door open will ya?"

"I'm sorry sir, but Ms. Potts is on her way down there and she asked me to make sure that you both remain there until she arrives."

The AI paused for a moment and then continued. "And sir? She's been listening in, and doesn't seem to be very impressed with your interview skills."

"Are you locking this damn door?" Tony twisted the lock a few more time and tugged. "You are, aren't you? Jarvis, I don't care what Pepper says, just open the fucking door!" Tony huffed, glaring at the door avoiding the amusement lighting up Darcy's face.

"Now!" Tony ordered, slamming his fist against the door.

"One moment sir, Ms. Potts wants to talk to you." Tony turned around leaning against the offending door, crossing his arms, glaring sullenly at Darcy.

"Anthony Stark?" Pepper's voice came over the PA system. "You just sit down, I'm in the elevator, I'll be there in less than five minutes."

"Peppppppeeer!" Tony whined. Yes whined. It was his damn building and he would whine if he wanted to. He kicked the door with the heel of his trainer leaving a scuff mark on it.

"Tony, sit. Now. And not another word to Ms. Lewis until I get there."

Tony threw himself away from the door. As he passed Darcy he hissed in a low whisper, "See what you've got me into!"

"Shut it Tony!" Pepper commanded.

"Ms. Lewis, I do apologize and would very much appreciate it if you would wait for me to get there." Pepper said in a conciliatory voice.

Darcy grinned up at the ceiling, "Sure no problem. She tuned a gleeful look at Tony. "You dude are in troooouble." She sang while doing a little victory dance.

"Yeah. Yeah. Look just park it will ya?" Tony told her, looking utterly disgusted as he flopped back down in the chair behind the desk. He totally was not paying attention to the bouncing view in front of him.

"Whipped," mouthed Darcy, blue eyes alight with unholy glee.

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As a reward for some of the lovely comments and reviews I decided to post this chapter early. Much like Loki, I believe that good behavior should be rewarded. Keep those comments and reviews coming. I have also decided that when I pm the comments I will also send a preview chapter. Like I said, good behavior should be rewarded. :D

News - I am at 27,000 words in my new fic, or not quite half way done. While not a sequel to this one, I hope it will be acceptable.

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.


	15. Chapter 15 - Fix This

Tony, Pepper and Darcy... chat. Then Pepper does prep work to take over the world. Starting of course with Stark International. Errr... perhaps SAVE the world would make a better sound bite. Oh... and good things come in little emails.

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Returning to Midgard after an absence of almost two years, Loki finds that as desperate for change as he has been, some changes will take time to get used to, especially when they concern his relationship with Tony and Pepper. Darcy lays down her taser, momentarily and decides to start wielding the internet to the dismay of both the fallen Prince of Asgard and S.H.I.E.L.D. This sequel is complete and will update regularly.

**Chapter #15 – Fix This**

The woman who opened the door and entered the room was no longer Pepper, Personal Assistant of Tony Stark, rather she was now the crisply tailored, Virginia Potts, Stark International CEO.

Darcy who had been fiddling with her papers and Tony who was angrily stabbing at his tablet, both looked up when the door opened. Pepper had stood there for a moment, observing them both closely before closing the door and relocking. "Jarvis, this door stays locked until I say otherwise."

"Very good Ms. Potts," he AI responded.

"So." Pepper said as she walked over to the desk, motioning a sullen Tony out of his chair and into the other visitor chair beside Darcy. "What do we need to do to fix this?" she asked as they both followed her with their eyes.

"Nothing," Darcy and Tony said practically simultaneously.

Reaching across the desk, Pepper motioned for Darcy to hand over her folder. Hesitantly, Darcy held out her paperwork, releasing it only when Pepper tugged gently on it.

Laying the folder on the desk, Pepper smoothed out her coco colored skirt and twitched her matching jacket into place before sitting down. There was no doubt that Pepper knew what clothes suited her. The coco brown, almost mocha color of her textured suit perfectly complimented the caramel tones in her upswept hair.

When neither of them said anything, Pepper flipped over the folder and quickly scanned the enclosed resume, before turning her attention to the letter of recommendation that Loki had given Darcy.

"Very nice," Pepper said, tapping the recommendation and raising an inquiring brow towards Darcy.

"Yeah, I know." Darcy said her voice lightly laced with humor. "Loki told me that he'd perjured his immortal soul giving me such a glowing reference. But he was smiling when he said it, so it's all good I guess."

They shared a look which Pepper held as she considered the young woman in front of her. Amazingly, Tony didn't start running his mouth. What was more amazing, had Pepper known it, Darcy was also silent.

Tony wasn't the only one who had checked the background of one Darcy Lewis this afternoon. When Pepper's PA had received a call from H.R. that Darcy was in the building looking for a job he had also pulled a background check and forwarded it to her. Pepper would have to find out who had originally alerted the H.R. Manager when Darcy showed up and then sent a follow up email to Pepper's own PA.

People with high powered recommendations were not unheard of at Stark International of course, but normally those applications were merely forwarded up the food chain after the fact. Somewhere in H.R. there was a person that was so tuned in to the company grapevine that they realized, that at this moment in time, a Lucas Laufey recommendation was something that even the CEO would want to know about immediately.

Tony shifted in his chair exasperated, while he originally had hopes that the Lewis girl would be useful, since that wasn't going to happen he had other things to do. Okay, so maybe they may have involved a hidden stash of booze, but they were still things to do that didn't involve sitting here with a lippy chick he couldn't even hit on. "Okay, so this was fun, root canal fun, but fun none the less. I'll just be going now. See ya later Pep." He said getting up.

"Stop right there Tony," Pepper commanded. "Before you leave, you need to apologize to Ms. Lewis for the worst job interview."

"Ever."

A rebellious frown started to form on Tony's face, but Pepper stopped it with an impatient hiss of displeasure. Tony opened his mouth to argue, but Pepper lifted both brows inquiringly and gave him a hard stare. While it is plain to see that Tony hated the idea of ever speaking to Darcy again, Pepper knew he isn't going to fight her on something like this.

"Fine," Tony said scathingly. "Ms. Lewis I am sorry that I do crummy interviews."

When Darcy didn't respond with anything more than a glare, Tony gave Pepper a disgusted look and muttered, "Happy Pepper? No? You know what? Just deal then, I'm out of here," he mumbled before heading towards the door.

Placing his hand on the door know, Tony called out. "Jarv, open sesame buddy, I want out."

"Jarvis, please open the door for Mister Stark. Oh, and Tony, please tell Ms. Myers to get me an employment packet ready would you please. "

"Pepper!"

"Thank you Tony. That will be all. Please close the door when you leave."

"Pep-"

"Close. The. Door. Please." Pepper told him, forcing a pleasant tone through gritted teeth and turning up the wattage of her glare.

"Fine!" Tony spat, whisking himself out the door and closing it with a bang.

Pepper could almost feel the disgusted look Tony threw at her from the other side of the closed door.

While normally she didn't like to get Tony unset, today she was going to be okay with it. He deserved it for interrupting an interview her people were already monitoring and then balling it up completely.

Hell, Darcy Lewis could sue them for some of the things that Tony had said. Not that Pepper thought she would, but it wouldn't hurt to remind Tony of the possibility as soon as she could speak to him privately.

There was however something that she was not going to speak to Tony about. Pepper found it interesting, in an odd way, that Tony had seemingly adopted Loki's use of the word 'Fine' as a swear word. That was going to stay her private amusement.

"Now Ms. Lewis, let's talk. I have been thinking about it, and I do think we just might have a position for you at Stark International…"

OoooO

About two hours later Pepper returned to her office to try and salvage her schedule for the rest of the day. She had been listening, via Jarvis to the conversation between Ms. Lewis and Tony, the first minute or so in her office. Then it had been forwarded to her cellphone so she could listen as she made her way down to the Human Resources office. Sometimes she just wanted to kill Tony. More often than not lately in fact, but he did own the company, so she tried to cope. And besides, she knew Tony wasn't being an ass on purpose, it was just how he was.

Pepper had no doubt that they would have, in a day or so, called Ms. Lewis… Darcy, back for an interview and then hired her as a favor to Lucas, possibly in some sort of entry position in the public relation department. Ideally, she would have been hired with much less drama, in a job where her education and experience could have been of use. However, all bets were off once Tony got involved. Now pitching Darcy into the Public Relations was most likely not going to work, there would be too much gossip… And honestly, she didn't think Darcy would be the kind of person to just ignore the teasing and sniping that would occur from that group once the grapevine got ahold of the story of Tony not only personally interviewing her, but running through the building to do it. Pepper smiled, tucking back a loose strand of hair. Drama should have been Tony's middle name; as a full tilt diva he caused enough of it after all.

Shaking her head, Pepper had to admit though, in fairness to Tony, his interference gave her a chance to personally talk to Darcy and get information that H.R. wouldn't necessarily have gotten. This meant Pepper hadn't missed a golden opportunity to perfectly fill a very sensitive position, with the most seemingly unlikely, but eminently suitable candidate no less. While she did think her life held enough stress, she was looking forward to seeing what chaos her new hire would cause. It might not make her life easier, but it would be… a possibly helpful distraction for all others involved… Tony first and foremost, but definitely not last.

And then of course there was just the whole 'Darcy-logic' of it all to be considered.

A huge smile broke over Pepper's face, remembering how frantic Darcy had been a few years ago when she learned that Lucas had returned to Asgard for an indefinite possibly permanent length of time. Pepper had thought she had known why. After all the website and forum were pretty classic _'crush'_ responses to unrequited young love. Which was understandable, hell if she thought Lucas was hot, what must a college kid have thought. Especially since Darcy had spoken to him on the phone quite a bit over the years, been his _'Thor gofer'_ several times and even stayed at his condo on occasion when she was in New York. So Pepper could have totally seen Darcy having a crush. What Pepper hadn't known was that while Darcy most likely did have a crush on Lucas, the main reason she had been so frantic was that she was afraid.

Darcy's reaction to being afraid was strange, but Pepper guessed it did make weird, if convoluted Darcy-sense. Not that Darcy had admitted it in actual words, but she had deflected and snarked around the topic long enough that Pepper was able to see the half-truths behind Darcy's actual words. It had also helped that Pepper had known details, thanks to Tony's penchant for classified information, of all the incidents Darcy was alluding to. All that back ground knowledge allowed Pepper to draw more information out of the girl by offering tidbits of information that even Darcy hadn't known.

Apparently, Darcy had felt helpless at only narrowly escaping serious injury during the Destroyer attack in New Mexico. She had felt even more helpless when she was kidnapped and badly beaten a few years later. She apparently wanted to be close to and more importantly, even if it was only as their errand runner, be a significant person to the god powerful enough to rain destruction down upon both New Mexico and New York. Who had also been the only one skilled enough to rescue and avenge her when no one else could find her and doctors Foster and Selvig. With of course the added bonus of Loki being the only one on earth who could have healed her that quickly and without scars.

While she didn't come right out and say it, Darcy had danced around the fact, that if she had to be someone's minion in this life, it was safer to be the minion of the most powerful person around. Which Pepper had to admit, weird Darcy-logic or not, did make sense.

Pepper looked up with a pale smile as her assistant Jeanine brought her in her coffee with double cream. "Thanks Jeanine, you're the best. I have something important that I just really need to finish up today, could you hold everything that isn't life or death until tomorrow?"

"Of course Ms. Potts. Please let me know if you need anything else."

"I will Jeanine, thanks." Pepper told her taking a sip of coffee and preparing to dig into her neglected project.

OoooO

Sipping her coffee, Pepper palmed a disguised area on the side of her desk opening her personal safe. While she had a large walk in safe for general long term storage, the safe compartment on her desk was designed to stay open the entire time she was working with any sensitive files. Tony had designed this smaller safe for her years ago when she was his assistant. It was now second nature for Pepper to sweep any working notes and papers into the safe and push the lid down to lock it before she left her desk, for any reason no matter how brief. Her current project was a feasibility study on taking the company back private. Since she didn't want any leaks to drive up the stock prices, she was doing all the primary research herself and taking security very, very seriously.

Tony did still have fifty-one percent of Stark International, so that was good. Both she and Lucas had small amounts also, but Pepper's research was on how she and Lucas might set about acquiring the other forty-nine percent. As soon as Lucas came back, which she was certain he would, she wanted to have a plan ready to present to him and Tony.

She scribbled some figures down on her note pad and sighed. Taking Stark International private would be costly and doing it clandestinely would take time. However Pepper was determined that they _'needed'_ to do it. Projecting out, very long term, she thought they should have the time and with Lucas' help the both of them could get the money. If they could accomplish the switch they would not have to worry about disgruntled stock holders interfering with long-term plans so they could get short-term gains. Because frankly, the risk of shareholders asking award questions about costly projects that didn't exactly add to the company coffers was something they were going to have to deal with should the company remain publicly traded. Understandable of course, but not what was needed if they were going to get ready for an alien invasion on the Q.T.

It took a few hours to get the main plan fleshed out. Pepper had ended up with a list of items she stilled needed to check on, but she was pleased with her progress. She had safely locked up her notes and was just about finished encrypting the files she had been working on, when her phone chirped. Or rather _'HER'_ phone chirped. And a special little chirp it was. Pepper grinned to herself as she tapped the last few keys needed to secure her files and then dug her private, bought with cash with a prepaid talk and data plan, really private, smart phone out of her handbag. While not many, there were a few times she wanted to make calls or receive files without them going through Jarvis or anything Stark Industries related. It may not have been a Stark Phone, but it worked for her, because hey a girl was allowed to have a few guilty pleasures. And this one was so much less fattening than a pint of her favorite chocolate cherry ice cream.

Pepper took the phone into her private wash room, tapping out the code to unlock it. Her bathroom was the one area of her office where she was absolutely sure that Jarvis had no cameras coverage. Sitting at the small vanity, she called up her messages. There were several pictures that had been forwarded and the daily digest of one of the forums she was currently following. She scrolled through the various drawings and photos and then had a few good laughs at some of the posts. She debated logging in and stirring the pot a bit, but with a quick glance at her watch, decided she just didn't have time to get sucked into that today. And if she blushed while saving one of the pictures in her phones screen saver gallery, it was harmless and no one's business but her own. While nothing interesting or blackmail worthy had come in from the StarkMadness site, the other site had yielded some great fan art, so it was still a good days haul.

Honestly, who could have predicted that she would enjoy lurking at the 'Loki God of Fashion' site so much?

OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO

As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated both for the insight they give me and for fact that they help attract others to my story. I will answer every single comment.

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.


	16. Chapter 16 – Painful Discussion

Tony and Loki finally have their talk, and it is even more painful that Tony thought it would be. But hey, promises are made and promises are kept.

OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO

Returning to Midgard after an absence of almost two years, Loki finds that as desperate for change as he has been, some changes will take time to get used to, especially when they concern his relationship with Tony and Pepper. Darcy lays down her taser, momentarily and decides to start wielding the internet to the dismay of both the fallen Prince of Asgard and S.H.I.E.L.D. This sequel is complete and will update regularly.

**Chapter # 16 – Painful Discussion**

After trying for weeks to get the god of aggravation to talk to him, he just turned up one day at Tony's gym. Tony had just turned away from putting his clothes in his locker and there was Loki walking into the changing room with a leather gym bag over his shoulder. Needless to say he was surprised, since Sitaras was a pretty exclusive place. Hell, Tony himself had barely made it past the mandatory entrance testing, so he was pretty sure that the god of impatience would not have put up with six assessment visits just to join. Besides, he knew that when Loki did train with mortals, or excuse him, '_spar_', he did it with high ranked professional martial art experts that would put Natasha to shame. Otherwise it was too risky for the mortals and no challenge for Loki.

So if he wasn't a member, what was he doing here? Sitaras obviously did not have day memberships and their security was pretty fierce, so he couldn't have just popped in on a whim. Or rather Tony thought, shouldn't have been able to, but again, this was Loki.

"Hey Levi Meeuwenberg, what brings you here today?" Tony asked with seeming casualness as he slung a towel around his neck.

Loki opened up a locker and proceeded to strip, "I came to exercise obviously." He said, not looking at Tony, but rather concentrating on neatly hanging his jacket up one of the wide coat hangers inside the locker.

Tony swung a leg over the bench and sat down, straddling it. He quirked an eyebrow at the tall man disrobing. "Yeah I got that, but, this is a pretty exclusive gym; I didn't know you were a member."

A gentle smile stole over Loki face and he turned his head to look down a moment at Tony, amused. "I'm not, and yet I can come and go here as I please." The smile became wider and he wrinkled his nose in delight, "Wonderful is it not?"

Tony gave him one of his patented shrugs, "Yeah. Sure. That's cool and all, but how is it, o'prince of smugness, that you can come and go as you please like that?"

Okay, that unleashed one of the god's full on smirk-y smiles. His eyes twinkled a minute before they lost focus. He didn't answer, but rather slipped on a black form fitting tank top and a pair of black jersey shorts. And Tony was totally 'not' checking him out as Loki lifted his arms above his head to shrug on the tight tank top, smoothing it down over a mile of lean, taut belly, before he slid legs that went on for forever into his shorts.

It wasn't until Loki had pulled on some white crew socks and was tying his trainers that the god lifted one shoulder and said modestly, "John Sitaras is friends with Simon Rhee, who I have sparred with once or twice when he was in town. Apparently, Mister Rhee is a fan of some of the kick moves I use. Sitaras asked me if I could come in to show him a few things, and in return gave me entrance whenever I choose to come here. His green eyes hooded and he smirked down at a flushed Tony, "And before you ask, no, I did not have to put up with that assessment nonsense."

"Okay…." Tony swung his leg back over and stood up as Loki closed the locker. "So you just decided to come here today… and use the facilities?" he asked skeptically.

Loki chuckled. Coming up beside Tony he placed a friendly arm across his shoulder and steered him towards the door. "Don't be stupid Stark. You know that's not why I'm here," again he smiled. Eyes crinkling in humor, he gave Tony that stupid little mischievous nose wrinkle that he did. While the nose thing might have looked cute on an eight year old trying to get out of trouble for sneaking his big sister's diary out of her room, it was frankly a weird look for a Nordic god who was over several centuries old and towered over Tony by a good five or six inches. Or at least Tony tried to convince himself it was. Even if Tony knew several high society beauties who had confided in him at various charity events that they just loved Lucas' _adorable_ expressions.

_Gag_.

"You wanted to talk Stark, so we will spar and we will talk," the god said as he gently pushed Tony through the door leading into the main gym.

"Hey, we could have talked at your place, or we could have talked in the coffee shop. Why do we have to talk here?"

Loki laughed and snapped the small towel he held, cracking it hard against an unoccupied elliptical cross trainer as he led the way past the machine room, towards several vacant glass walled rooms covered with floor mats. He looked back over his shoulder with an evil grin. "Now Stark, you're supposed to be a genius, you tell me why I came here to talk to you."

Tony sighed. "Yeah, I know why. You couldn't have pounded my ass to the floor in a coffee shop," he said resignedly, then he paused a moment in thought, "Well of course you _'could'_ have, but it wouldn't have looked good to the bystanders."

Loki just raised a brow in agreement and went in to the training room and over to the protective gear that was hung on the wall. "Pick anything you like Stark, I don't need anything."

Tony looked at the various chest plates, gloves, knee protections, helmets and such. "Is any of this stuff going to do me any good?" he asked with a deeper sigh. Knowing the answer, but hoping he might get a different one.

"Probably not," Loki told him throwing his towel on a small nearby bench and dashing Tony's small hope of getting out of this uninjured. The god stepped several paces away from the bench and started a weird stretching routine.

"Well, I am not going to spar with you like Natasha and Clint spar." Tony groused as he threw down his own towel and started to stretch. "I've seen way too many security videos of you hitting and kicking and I am not going anywhere near you when that is happening.

"Boxing?" Loki offered indifferently. "You could put on all manner of protective equipment; I would even wear the gloves."

Tony wondered if he could get away with suggesting something like arm wrestling.

Then he shuddered to himself at the mental picture of him getting his arm broken in multiple places by the pre-menstrual god of terminal crankiness. It would heal, but how fast? Tony knew from the whole bomb incident, that he could take more damage and heal much faster than before, but it still hurt. In fact it had hurt a lot and he was not sure how long a broken arm would hurt or take to mend. He had the fucking god apple but he still wasn't as strong and didn't heal as fast as prissy boy. Sure he was a ton stronger than he had been and yes he healed much faster, but still the boy from Asgard, Loki the Annoying was still stronger.

_There just was no damn justice in this realm_, he thought bitterly.

None.

"What part of no hitting did you not understand?" Tony asked, mood darkening.

"Don't be such a baby Stark," Tony's laser glare rolled right off of Loki as he essayed a small thin lipped smile leaning backwards at an impossible angle.

"Fine, we'll wrestle then. Did you not tell me you did that in college?" At Tony's wary nod he continued in a light friendly voice. "And while we are wrestling we will… talk. You can tell me whatever it is you were badgering me to hear these last several weeks."

"Yeah. About that, as I _'said'_ I wanted to talk to you in a coffee shop or your condo, not here in a gym where you will hand my ass to me. Probably broken."

Tony bent his arm up and behind his head, using his other one to put tension on it.

"No this is better. You wanted to talk, so we will talk, you just don't get to pick where and how we do it. We don't always get everything we want." Loki raised an eyebrow and did some almost double jointed stretch thing. He was a limber god; Tony would have to give him that.

"Life is full of such compromises Stark, don't you agree?"

Well he did want to talk to Loki, and Tony doubted that Loki would kill him, if he had wanted to do that, he would have done it weeks ago when they fought. Permanent injuries were not something he was really worried about right now, pain and discomfort yes, but not permanent disablement so much. Yeah, he _'knew'_ it was possible, but the probability had become so much lower that it was in the noise right now. So, Tony guessed that wrestling would be okay. It would have to be okay, it wasn't like he had any other choices available to him.

"Yeah, okay. If I must, we'll wrestle."

"No holds barred?" Loki asked off handedly.

"What?" Tony started. He stared at Loki, knowing he looked like nothing so much as a deer in the headlights.

OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO

**Bonus - A preview paragraph of the next chapter will be sent with all comment when I PM. **

As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated and speed the posting of another chapter. I will answer every single comment.

If you don't want to comment, a follow or favorite is also appreciated.

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.


	17. Chapter 17 - Drop Down

Tony and Loki Have fun at the Gym, Promises that were made are promises that are kept.

OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO

Returning to Midgard after an absence of almost two years, Loki finds that as desperate for change as he has been, some changes will take time to get used to, especially when they concern his relationship with Tony and Pepper. Darcy lays down her taser, momentarily and decides to start wielding the internet to the dismay of both the fallen Prince of Asgard and S.H.I.E.L.D. This sequel is complete and will update regularly.

**Chapter #17 – Drop Down**

Tony was horrified? Freestyle wrestling? With someone like Loki? Not in this life time or the next. Not that he believed in that sort of thing obviously, but still.

"No holds barred? You mean freestyle?" Tony repeated slightly horrified. "Hell no! Greco-Roman. No throws, no trips and no holds below the belt." At Loki's decidedly amused smirk, he continued hotly. "I am so not going to let you fling me and slam me around freestyle." As if he could do a lot to stop him, even when he had his suit on, but still.

"Very well Stark," Loki sighed. "It seems a bit babyish, but I think I can adapt to those restrictions." Then that patented 'crazed evil villain' look of his peeked out. "Well… At least I will _'try'_," he amended.

Inner Tony just curled up and started to cry. Sadly, even in his own head he received no sympathy, as Morty Dickerson, his annoying voice pointed out to him, that he had brought this on himself.

Tony bent down to lay his palms flat on the mat in one last stretch, trotted over and snatched up a padded helmet, for all the good it might do him. He put it on and then walked to the center of the mat, indicating to Loki that the beating could commence.

Loki joined Tony in the center of the mat and they began to circle. It only took Tony a minute to realize that he was in deep shit. He should have known that Loki was playing him. If there was one bastard in the entire realm of screaming swordsmen who knew how to wrestle, it would of course have to be the trickster god.

Loki's first moves proved it of course. While they weren't exactly classic, which was understandable since Loki had learned in Fairyland, not earth, they were solid. Loki's long arm reached out and locked Tony's arm against the joint, by using Tony's shoulder as a fulcrum he forced him face down on the mat. He then locked his arms around Tony's waist, pulling Tony's lower body off the mat, which totally screwed up any chance Tony had of getting enough leverage to get out from under him. It only took a few more seconds before a long arm snaked under his chest grabbing his opposite shoulder and somehow he was flipped on his back with a slam that left him seeing stars. Then the weight of an angry god crashed down on him, pinning his shoulders and torso to the mat. Loki was slender, but he was really fucking tall, so skinny or not, he had some weight behind him.

Soft black hair tickled the side of Tony's face as Loki's angry hiss scalded his ear. "Do you have any idea how angry you made me?" he whispered.

"Uhhhn," Tony grunted, trying unsuccessfully to shift the weight holding him to the mat, "I kinda got the hint, yeah."

That smooth intimidating voice rode over his. "The reason I refused to see you before this," it rumbled menacingly, "Was that it took this long before I could trust myself not to do you a serious injury."

Tony took a breath to answer, but Loki lifted up slightly and then slammed back down on him, knocking all the air along with any coherent thoughts, right out of him.

"Now, do you have any words or clever phrases you want to repeat to me from our last conversation?" the god asked, lifting his head to stare darkly down at Tony.

"No, not a one," Tony told him anxiously, "We're good."

"No, Stark we aren't, not yet anyway," purred that dreadful voice as Loki's eyes bored into him.

Tony shivered and he knew Loki had felt it by the low mocking laugh the god let loose, before slapping his hand on the mat and springing to his feet.

Tony took a breath, and rolled over onto his knees before standing up with his hand pressing the ache in the small of his back. He took as much time as he could doing it, trying to give himself a breather and time to consider what kind of strategy he might use. But despite the delay, he sadly had nothing.

Loki tilted his head, "You might want to use a different stretching routine the next time you anger me Stark. I don't think the one you used was comprehensive enough."

_No shit_, Tony thought as he waved that he was ready to resume.

As they circled, Loki seemed to be in no hurry to close with him. He danced out of Tony's way when he lunged for the god, but didn't seem too interested in following up with any offensive moves of his own.

"It always irritated me, Stark, that Thor caused me so many problems. Not deliberately mind you, but by not spending a single moment to think of what his actions might do. A momentary lapse of judgment on his part and I would be stuck spending the next decade rectifying the mess. And now, there is you, supposedly so much smarter, but doing the exact same thing. I can't tell you how tired I get about having to deal with complications caused by the thoughtlessness of others. Especially others who have enough brains to know better if only they would think a few minutes."

_Okay. We definitely have an issue here,_ Tony thought as he backed warily away; one step, two steps. But then, quicker than he could track, Loki followed, grabbing him by the shoulders, then throwing himself backwards, flipping them at the last minute so Tony's head and shoulders struck the mat with a boom.

Tony scrambled, managing to lever himself on the side, so it was not an automatic pin, which would have been deeply embarrassing. One real attack and he was pinned? Not this time!

And so it wasn't. However, it was not many more evasive moves before Loki, who had been seemingly playing with him, decided that enough was enough. He twisted, shoved and effortlessly flipped Tony on his back, again with enough force to cause brain damage and again driving all the air out of his body by slamming down, pinning Tony flat against the mat.

"Hey wait," Tony gasped, trying to get enough air. "I thought I was going to get to talk."

"So talk Stark, no one is stopping you."

_Well other than the lack of air and the concussion,_ Tony thought sarcastically. _But other than that, hey we're good_.

"Look, Pepper is really pissed at me over this," he wheezed.

"What do you care Stark, you never make any effort to avoid angering her. Why is this time any different?"

"Well this time is different, she said she isn't eating one of your damn god apples unless I get this straightened out."

"So, Ms. Potts is rethinking accepting the gift of immortality? She isn't sure if the benefits of living forever in a youthful body and saving her world outweigh the fact that she would have to put up with sharing the planet with you and your bad behavior?"

"Yeah, that's pretty much it," Tony admitted.

"Ah." Loki tapped the mat twice with his palm and then bounced up onto his feet again.

This time when Tony stood, he didn't wait, he didn't circle. Tony immediately dived towards Loki, grabbing his shoulders as he swung up his leg to hook it behind Loki's tripping him. His momentum caused the god to fall backwards and Tony landed heavily on him. Before he could make good another move, Loki flipped him off, while spinning around and up over Tony's lower body. Straddling his hips, Loki planted his knees on the outside of Tony's body, and pressed his shins firmly into the back of Tony's legs. He grabbed Tony's arm in a lock to prevent him from basing up before Tony could try a par terre position.

"Interesting leg move Stark, are we going to do no holds barred after all?" Loki asked, almost conversationally.

_What? _

"No. Shit, I forgot. Sorry," Tony gasped, face pressed into the mat.

"Don't let it happen again. Understand?"

Tony nodded his assent, as he couldn't quite get enough air to talk.

"So Stark, do you think that the eventual protection of your planet is worth perhaps thinking for five minutes before acting rashly?" Loki asked as he eased up, letting Tony's lungs inflate again.

"Yeah, pretty much," he huffed, drawing in a deeper breath. "Come on Loki, I can do better, Just give me another chance."

"Why should I believe you?" the god growled into his ear.

"Look, I'm telling you I can. Just give me another chance." Tony desperately wanted this to be over. He wanted Loki to believe him, he wanted Pepper off his case and he just wanted things to get back to normal. Or as normal as Tony's life ever was.

"Can what?" Loki challenged. "Think before you act? Use common sense? Stop being jealous?"

Okay, that one went a bit too far and Tony Stark wouldn't be Tony Stark if he didn't call him on it. "Oh that's rich coming from you Prancer. How jealous have you been of Thor in the past? Or even right now?"

Loki's chuckle has a black bitter edge. "Yes Stark, I'm well aware of the hypocrisy, but look how well jealousy served me! It was a wedge for Thanos and the Chitauri to use in breaking my mind. I am well aware of the problems that ensued from the lessons I should have learned but didn't. Wouldn't you like to do better than that?"

"Okay, I got it now. No jealousy, no acting rashly, use common sense. I can do this," Tony pledged, trying to force as much conviction into his voice as he possibly could.

"Good," There was no movement for a minute. "You know Stark I am still upset with you?"

"Yeah, figured that." Tony said with a rueful little laugh.

Loki released the lock on Tony's arm and lightning fast snaked his hand up inside the back of Tony's AC/DC shirt. Hooking his nails deeply in the pinned man's back, Loki dragged his nails from mid-shoulder, almost to Tony's waist, leaving four long bloody stripes.

"Jesus Christ!" Tony screamed arching his back, trying to escape the sharp nails scraping his skin off. "What the hell was that all about?" he demanded angrily as he whipped his head to the side, trying to look at Loki.

Once again the god's long hair tickled the side of Tony's face as Loki breathed into his ear, "Stark, I will always keep my promises to you. The good as well as the bad, you would do well to remember that in the future." Loki lifted off Tony and walked over to pick up his towel from the bench.

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As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated.

If you don't want to comment, a follow or favorite is also appreciated.

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.


	18. Chapter 18 - Blind Sided

Tony searches for hickeys. But many other things happen too!

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Returning to Midgard after an absence of almost two years, Loki finds that as desperate for change as he has been, some changes will take time to get used to, especially when they concern his relationship with Tony and Pepper. Darcy lays down her taser, momentarily and decides to start wielding the internet to the dismay of both the fallen Prince of Asgard and S.H.I.E.L.D. This sequel is complete and will update regularly.

**Chapter #18 – Blind Sided**

"Good heaven's Tony, what happened to you?" Pepper gasped looking up from her paperwork.

"Hi Pepper. Umm, nothing." Tony assured her breezily, or making his best attempt at it in the face of her scrutiny. "Don't worry, it's all good. Loki and I talked."

"Talked?" She asked uncertainly while taking in the rapidly fading bruises on his arms and the side of his face. "With what Tony? Baseball bats?"

"Heh," he offered, walking over and plopping down in one of the chairs in front of her desk. "Funny Pep, real funny."

"Do you want some ice to hold on that?" she asked, stacking up the papers in front of her and placing them off to the side in her safe compartment, closing it gently.

Tony looked over at her with a rueful smile, "Well I wouldn't say no."

"And a scotch?"

"Well duh. Not to that either," He laughed. Pepper had become much less stressed about his drinking since he had changed. Possibly because it was harder for him to get hurt or kill himself while drunk, but perhaps because it was harder for him to achieve anything more than a gentle buzz. Not impossible mind you, but it took so freaking long that he often got bored before it happened!

Pepper smiled and went into the small kitchenette attached to her office and pulled out an ice pack, one of those soft ones that looked like a chef's hat with a screw top on it, and filled it with ice.

"Hey," he called, "Make sure you save some of that ice for the scotch okay?"

She smirked at him, and dropped several cubes in to a glass that she had poured about two inches of scotch into.

"Here," she said walking over and handing both of them to Tony. "I had Jeanie leave the bottle."

"Anyhow Pep, Loki said he would be calling you." Tony told her, sighing as he rested the ice pack on his face while taking a small sip of his drink.

Pepper leaned against her desk right in front of Tony; she looked away for a moment. "He did, about half an hour ago."

"Really? So when is he coming back?"

"I'm not sure," she hesitated. "We will be meeting to discuss it."

"Glad to hear it. Jarvis?" Tony called as he leaned back in the chair.

"Yes sir?"

"As soon as Pepper tells you to, reauthorize Loki's authorizations, same level as before okay."

"Very good sir." Jarvis told him approvingly.

OoooO

"Sir?"

"Not now Jarvis. Busy." Tony said, frowning down at his current project.

"Sir, I think you—"

"Shut it Jarvis, you can tell me when I'm finished."

"But sir,"

"Jarvis, not another word or I'm selling you to a daycare."

Always the problem was running all the wiring so that that mechanics didn't interfere with it. Tony frowned down at the chest assembly he was working on. While the hypersensitive sensors he was trying to install were more vulnerable to damage on the chest than say his arms or shoulders, those areas were pretty much maxed out space wise by his weapon arrays. So, his current solution seemed to be heading towards placing them on the chest, but making them modular, so he could easily replace them when damaged.

Tony played around with the location and spacing for perhaps another hour or so before deciding to send the schematic to Jarvis to set up a few simulation runs. Just to see how often he would have problems and how the damage might affect quick replacements.

Sighing, Tony saved his file and then stretched.

"Jarvis go ahead and use the previous suit damage info we have and run some tests to see how this would hold up."

"At once sir. Can I now speak with you with on another matter?"

"Sure thing Jarv," Tony said with a yawn as he sauntered over to the elevator. "What ya got?"

"Mister Laufey is in the building sir. You asked to be notified if he entered an area where he could be contacted."

Tony smiled as the elevator doors dinged open and he stepped forward. "Well, that's an old order, not that I don't want to know when he is around, but I've already talked to him. Pepper said he was going to meet with her soon."

"Yes sir, he took her to Le Bernardin this evening, Ms. Potts was in the mood for seafood."

Tony just stood in the doorway of the elevator. "Really? Le Bernardin? Isn't that a really fancy schmancy restaurant?

"Yes sir, I believe it is known for its fine French cuisine and its sophisticated yet romantic atmosphere."

"Okay… Odd place to meet to go over a contract isn't it Jarvis?" Tony asked almost absent mindedly as he finally noticed the soft chiming of the elevator trying to get him to move so the doors could close.

"Indeed it would be sir, but since Ms. Potts let the folder with the contract in her desk safe, that wasn't an issue."

"Oh. So that's what he's doing now? Going over the contract with her in her office?"

"The folder with the contact is still untouched in Ms. Potts safe. At this time Mister Laufey appears to be sleeping on Ms. Potts' office couch."

"Really?" Tony said in a strained voice, his hand froze in front of the floor buttons. "And just where is Pepper?"

"Ms. Potts also appears to be asleep on the couch."

Tony stiffened a moment, but then he stabbed at one of the floor buttons. He stood unmoving as his private elevator descended to the administrative lobby area. Just as the car came to a stop, he started, eyes gone wide as a horrible thought assailed him.

"Jarvis?" He asked hoarsely, "Are they both still dressed?" He waited inside the car, holding his breath and the elevator door until Jarvis replied.

"Yes sir, with the exception of shoes, ties and jacket, they are both still clothed."

Tony breathed a quick prayer of thanks to whatever deity, please don't let it be Norse, that was supposed to help people who fucked up relationships and then exited the elevator.

"I should let you know, the office door is locked sir. I don't think Ms. Potts wanted to be disturbed."

"Understood Jarvis. Unlock the door when I get there okay."

"Of course sir."

Tony quietly opened the door and immediately glanced over at the small conversation area facing the wall unit. Even with just the light coming through the open door from the outer office, he could see that the center section of the wall unit was covered by a drop down projection screen. Silhouetted against the white screen he could just make out an outline of someone with their head laid on the back of the couch. He stood there a moment, allowing his eyes adjust.

Tony saw long black hair draped over the back of the milk chocolate couch and knew it wasn't Pepper sitting there. Loki's head raised and he turned it halfway to cast one dark glittering eye towards the door. Tony saw Loki place his finger to his lips, clearly requesting silence; he then motioned Tony over with that same hand, pointing to one of the side chairs sitting across from the couch.

As Tony shut the door behind him Loki spoke.

"Jarvis, a bit more light please." Loki asked in a low voice.

The light in the office brightened to about half what it normally would be as Tony walked around the back of the couch towards the indicated chair. He saw Loki's Jacket and tie, which had been tossed over the other chair, and noticed two pairs of shoes discarded on the floor in front of the couch.

Loki was slouched down with one arm on the side of the couch, the other arm draped over Pepper's shoulder, long legs stretched out and crossed at his ankles; Pepper was lying on her side, asleep, her head pillowed on Loki's chest while her hand held his forearm captive. Pepper's elegant blue knee length dress was at odds with the total lack of makeup on her face, until Tony noticed a face towel with an obviously used wet wash cloth, on the floor in front of her.

Tony bit his lower lip and sat down. While his first impulse was to start yelling, he restrained himself, but not without with difficulty. After all he told himself furiously, Pepper wasn't his fiancée anymore. So Tony really didn't have a right to say anything about who she may or may not be using as a pillow. Besides, while he might be a bit hard headed, the whole 'think for five minutes and watch the jealousy' lesson from this morning had actually sunk in.

Or perhaps he should say raised up?

While it had only taken a few hours for the cuts he sustained during the bomb blast to heal and disappear, Tony still had four marks running down his back from this morning reminding him to be more careful. They were mostly healed, but hadn't disappeared like the other injuries had. He wondered if Loki had done something to make those marks scar, perhaps to remind him to think first and not to be an idiot later. And then he wondered what kind of idiot he was, since it was obvious that the visible scaring was something only Loki could have had engineered. Perhaps the scars would fade after a while, but at any rate, like it or not, until they did, they were a reminder for Tony to think before he did something rash.

So Tony just sat there in un-Stark-like silence and took it all in. One thing he was _'very'_ glad of was that he wasn't seeing any disheveled hair, clothing or other signs that a heavy make out session had occurred. Which was good, he didn't think he could have maintained his cool if he had seen hickeys.

He watched Pepper sleeping for several moments, before he looked up at Loki. "Crying jag?" he asked.

"Indeed," Loki waved his free hand towards the now blank screen, looking calmly at Tony. "Ms. Potts has already roughed out a work process chart to cover the mile stones she thinks we need to accomplish over the next decade which she was discussing with me." He looked down at Pepper's profile and a small smile stole across his face. "Quite well thought out actually," he said before returning his gaze to Tony. "But I am afraid the long term 'laundry list', as she called it was just a bit over whelming for her. Hence the 'crying jag' as you put it."

Tony scratched his hair line on the back of his neck as he processed this, then he shrugged. "Yeah. Maybe. I bet there was some residual stress there from the last few weeks too." He pulled a face and thought about his part in the recent shit storm Pepper had been dealing with.

"But she'll pull through it," Tony said looking at Pepper a fond smile spreading across his face. "She does that, sees too many possibilities and gets over whelmed. In a day or two, she will have sorted them out as to their importance and have figured out how things might be accomplished and she'll be right back on top, hard as nails and as focused as one of my lasers."

Loki studied him as he spoke, one brow raised as if to say, _'go on'_.

"Her thinking gets incredibly stream lined you know, and she will come up with the weirdest idea to get a project moving in the direction she is looking for." Tony continued looking up at Loki, who was regarding him intently. Who was, Tony thought, looking mellower that he had seen since his return. It was almost like pre-Asgard Loki was back. The before he found out about Odin's betrayal Loki.

"So. Are we going to be working together again or what?" Tony grinned at him. "Oh, and what was with the 'I don't work for you melt down?' Not that I can't sympathize," he hurriedly noted as the gods lips thinned in annoyance.

"Most likely Stark, although I haven't seen the new contract yet, but I have spent a millennium taking orders from Odin - to say nothing of what Thor, the golden boy has put me through in the past; all the while reminding me to make sure I know my place." Loki grimaced, "You will pardon me if, having escaped that, I am desperate for change, and loath to allow the same pattern to repeat itself on Midgard."

Okay, Tony thought, I can see shying away from the one eyed control freak and his minions, and he could totally see where Thor could get on your last nerve. Hey he bugged the crap out of Tony and he wasn't even related to the big blonde goof.

_Hey!_

"I'm not blonde." Tony glared, a frown furrowing his brow.

Loki gave him a twisted smile, "Golden can also denote chosen or favored Stark, it doesn't necessarily mean blonde."

"So, you won't take orders from them, or me, but have no problem taking them from your mother or someone like Pepper?"

Okay… A puzzled Loki totally reminded Tony of the RCA Dog. It was the head tilt of course, plus the expression of intense determination to understand.

"Of course I don't object to my mother telling me what to do," he said slowly. "I don't always listen," he laughed ruefully, "which generally rebounds to my detriment, but how could I object? It's Mother. Her commands and advice have always first and foremost been to protect or benefit me."

Crap. Tony ducked his head, turning slightly to look out at the night darkened window.

"Yeah… Well, my mother only ever had two pieces of advice for me," Tony said trying not to look as sad and sappy as he felt. "First was to stop pissing off my dad by bothering him when he was drunk or working. And he was always either drunk or working and frequently combined the two. The second was that when my mother told me to get away from her so she could get ready for a party or whatever the fuck she was running off to that night, I needed to do it immediately if I didn't want to get the crap smacked out of me or grounded to my room or both..." Tony's voice trailed off morosely.

They sat there for a while, the only sound being soft sighs from the sleeping Pepper. Tony looked out the window for a long time, when he glanced back at Loki, he quickly looked away, unable to bear the look Loki was giving him.

"I am sorry to hear that Stark. Both of them?" Loki's eyes appeared to glisten slightly before he blinked them clear. "That would have indeed been hard to bear."

Because Tony knew, no matter how much of a dick Odin had been, if Loki had to do it over again, he would have accepted Odin's behavior as the price of his mother's affection.

Tony ducked his head again, pretending to yawn, scrubbing his hands across his face and wiping away any suspicious moisture that might have been there. Not that there was mind you, he was Tony Stark after all.

"So," Tony went on brightly, desperate to get away from all the touchy feely emotion crap that he had just never been able to handle. "No orders from the guys then?"

"I am afraid I am just a bit allergic to that now." Loki sighed. "The last time it occurred was a in a very dark place indeed. I am not anxious to be reminded of it."

"Well actually, that was the time before last. Your last go round ended up getting you blown across a lobby by a bomb. So ya know, I can totally see a pattern here." Tony eyes crinkled and he grinned at the god. "Kinda like I don't want people handing me stuff, because every time they do, major bad things seem to happen to me."

Tony rocked back in his chair, totally struck by the comparison. "Whoa. Lokmeister, I can totally relate."

"Indeed Stark? Well I am glad that you have achieved enlightenment on the subject at last."

"You know Gandalf; eternity is a going to be long time to listen to you using my surname. If we are going to be working together, I really would prefer you call me Tony."

"If that is your preference, I think I can do that…" The god replied with a small smile. "By the way Tony, my name is Loki."

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As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated and speed the posting of another chapter. I will answer every single comment.

If you don't want to comment, a follow or favorite is also appreciated.

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.

PREVIEW CHAPTER 19

"At once sir," an amused Jarvis replied and then the screens in front of Tony filled with various pictures of a seriously underdressed Loki, standing,  
sitting and sleeping?! While several of the pictures were of him awake, it was readily apparent from his half-closed eyes, mussed hair and picture captions that the bare chested god of mischief had just rolled out of bed in all his 'caption proclaimed, low riding pajama bottoms' hotness.


	19. Chapter 19 - Unwelcome Publicity

Loki Laufey finds that viral internet coverage is just not for cute kittens anymore.

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Returning to Midgard after an absence of almost two years, Loki finds that as desperate for change as he has been, some changes will take time to get used to, especially when they concern his relationship with Tony and Pepper. Darcy lays down her taser, momentarily and decides to start wielding the internet to the dismay of both the fallen Prince of Asgard and S.H.I.E.L.D. This sequel is 75,000 words long and will update regularly.

OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO

Chapter #19 – Unwelcome Publicity

On Wednesday, Tony spent most of lunch snickering at something on his phone. It apparently even started to get on Doctor Crane's nerves, as she finally had enough and reached over to snatch the phone out of Tony's hands, sticking it in the top drawer of the small side table next to her chair.

Not that they were talking about anything important actually. Loki had missed Monday's session while getting his second office set up and signing everything that H.R. kept handing him. His new schedule had him in his new office by eight, helping Ms. Potts…err, Pepper with administrative tasks in the mornings after breakfast with Doctor Crane and then working in the lab after lunch with… 'Tony'. Tuesdays and Thursdays would most likely see him lunching in his lab office while catching up on various personal tasks that he was not really going to have any other time to do. At least until Monday when his new Personal Assistant, the one that Pepper had hired for him, was due to start work.

As they walked back into the lab, they found Pepper was waiting there for them. Loki thought this a bit odd, since she had made no mention of joining them when he saw her this morning.

"Hey Pep! What brings you down here this afternoon, as if I didn't know?" Tony chuckled as he walked over to a display table and exploded several screens into the air.

"Good afternoon Tony, Lucas," Pepper greeted them, walking over to stand by Tony at the display table. She turned and handed Loki a small card, "This is the contact number for one of our drivers, you'll want to take a car home this evening I think.

Loki accepted the card, "I rode my motorcycle in this morning like always, why would I want to take a company car home?" He asked her frowning down at the small while card.

Tony snorted. "Lok, you have gone so viral this morning, on so many levels, I doubt anyone will be able to walk past our building for the cameras this afternoon.

Tony called up video feed from the cameras surrounding the building and Loki could see several camera toting individuals milling around outside and… Was that the NBC News truck?

"Jarvis bring up the fashion shoot will you?"

"At once sir," an amused Jarvis replied and then the screens in front of Tony filled with various pictures of a seriously underdressed Loki, standing, sitting and sleeping?! While several of the pictures were of him awake, it was readily apparent from his half-closed eyes, mussed hair and picture captions that the bare chested god of mischief had just rolled out of bed in all his 'caption proclaimed, low riding pajama bottoms' hotness.

Why, he wondered, did the Norms hate him? He honestly did not to deal with... His chest felt tight and a sick feeling pooled in his stomach making him want to retch. He could taste the bile on the back of his throat. The Norms really, really hated him.

Both Pepper and Tony were snickering as he scrubbed his face in exasperation with both hands.

How did they get these pictures? When did they get these pictures? Who in Nine Realms thought that anyone wanted to see these pictures?" Loki moaned.

I'm trying to be taken 'seriously 'not look like some egri whore prancing around the barracks trying to discomfit or seduce.

"Apparently they were posted to your main web page a few weeks ago, and then just exploded a few days ago." Tony told, him as if answering his un-vocalized question and laughing maliciously at Loki's obvious distress. "Which kicked off a second explosion of hits of the documents you brought from Asgard."

Okay, that was a problem, possibly even a big one. Darcy and her damn web page, why hadn't he killed her the last time she was in town?

"How's the hit count increasing Jarvis?" Tony asked gleefully.

"It has doubled since I reported it to you before lunch sir."

Tony studied the screens, pulling a mock serious face, "I don't know Pep,I think the 'Come-hither side glance' one of Vixen sitting on the couch is the hottest. What do you think?"

"Honestly Tony," Pepper shot an amused glance at Loki, before drawing their attention to two other screens near the top of the display. She was trying not to laugh at Loki's dismay, but having a hard time repressing a smile. "Obviously it's the 'Full stretch while sleeping' one, not only do you get a nice look at his hip bones, but that lovely taunt expanse of skin bellow the belly button definitely grabs your attention. Not that the 'Raking his hand through his hair sideways glance' picture isn't also very nice. But the stretch picture is getting the most hits, so apparently the public agrees with me." She said in her best CEO presentation voice.

Loki slumped in a chair, covering his eyes with one hand, as if that would make the pictures go away. Why didn't he just stay in the void? Viral means something different in Midgard, and whenever he hears the term he has thinks of those stupid kitten videos that people email to everyone in their contact list. It is not exactly a term he had ever wanted applied to him.

He looked up to see Tony flipping through all the pictures. "You should really read some of the comments Loki, especially the ones for the pictures that have Drífa sitting beside you. Those are just hilarious." Tony threw him a smirk. "Well okay, mostly they are pornographic, but still, funny as hell."

Pepper, taking pity on him, came over and laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. "It could be worse Lucas," she told him. "At least they aren't bare assed pictures of you and a blonde having sex up against a hallway wall during a charity event."

"Hey" Tony yelped turning his glare on Pepper. "One time, one time that happened."

"Yeah Tony, one time with the blonde and how many times with brunettes? Three?"

"Twice," Tony smoothed down his Black Sabbath t-shirt. "But neither of those two were at charity events."

Pepper rolled her eyes. "Well then that makes it okay I guess," she said dryly.

"Mister Laufey, your new Personal Assistant has arrived at the elevator bank, she will be here shortly."

"Thank you Jarvis," Pepper looked down at Loki. "I know she was supposed to start Monday, but she was here this morning getting all her paperwork signed, so I asked her if she could start immediately. You're going to need a lot of help today getting ready to field media requests."

Tony was clicking on a link, and then peering at another screen. "Yeah, and most likely S.H.I.E.L.D. too, since a lot of these pictures link to the Asgard findings and those early news articles. That would explain all the news trucks out front."

"Truck" corrected Loki.

"Trucks, plural. There are two more out there now," Tony said bringing up a new screen. He raised an eyebrow and smiled at Pepper. "You better start prepping for a news conference; this is going to get worse before it gets better."

Pepper raised her brows and gave Loki a small smile, but then worried her bottom lip a bit, no doubt planning how she was going to handle today's little bomb shell. Brow furrowed, Loki leaned back and closed his eyes.

Of course three news trucks were about five more than Loki ever wanted to have interested in him and his activities. It wasn't that he had thought for even a minute that he would be able to get Midgard ready for Thanos without his involvement becoming known. But he had hoped to remain in the shadows for at least a few decades. Admittedly, that much grace would have been a miracle and in truth, he would have been happy to just get a few more years of relative peace. Unfortunately, like many other times in his life, event were conspiring to ensure that his task would be long and weary, with no very certain chance of success.

What Loki wouldn't give for the chance to just once be responsible for something that was clear cut and reasonably attainable? Smack some dull creature over the head with a heavy hammer and free a village from terror. He could do that, even if it meant firing off a few daggers to soften the creature up first. Go to some far off realm and find an item of immense power. He could do that… In fact he already had, that was what had caused this current mess. Perhaps, Loki thought blackly, it wasn't the task he had to do; so much as it was that he was the one doing it. Perhaps that was why a simple task, like find the item of power, had twisted back on him like a bougainvillea vine. All pretty and doable on the outside, lulling him closer until the vine wrapped around him and the long nail like thorns dug and ripped into his flesh.

And right now those nail like thorns we the fact that he was being 'outted' as 'Loki the Norse God' long before he wanted to be. His personal preference would have been to wait until those directly affected by attack had passed, until time had softened the horror of those days. Admittedly, there was a large selfish component in that preference, because it would be so much easier for him personally. With the Chitauri and Thanos too far away to attack immediately, unless they found another Loki grade sorcerer and high power artifact, a more distant problem. Loki had found his recent anonymity among the majority of the general population here on Midgard very relaxing. He had been content and had generally enjoyed his life at school and at Stark International, in a way he hadn't enjoyed living in Asgard for centuries.

But that was now at an end now wasn't it? His plan to slowly allow awareness to the masses of Thanos' threat against Midgard in tandem with announcements of how well the progress was going on preparing earth's defenses was shot. While he hadn't liked it, a few low traffic web pages being visited by bored Midgardians, had not been too difficult to ignore. This current media blitz however would prompt more exposure to the general public than could be easily glossed over. So he would now have to scramble to find some way in the immediate future to allay any fears this caused without promoting compliancy that would work against them in the long run.

He had a sick coppery taste in his mouth, pain throbbing in his left temple and a nauseous feeling pooling in his stomach. In fact the only good thing about this whole mess that was that he would be able to outlive much of the enmity here, in a way that could never have happened in the immortal city of Asgard. Granted it would take fifty years or so, fifty years that he was not looking forward too at all, but at least it might be possible. At any rate he hoped so. He already had three realms he was not welcome on and now he had to try and make sure it didn't turn into four. Truly the Norms did hate him.

"Here take this," Pepper said as she folded his hand around a sweating glass of something cold and fizzy. After a moment, when he still didn't open his eyes, soft hands guided the glass to his lips.

He opened his eyes and blinked, a very worried Pepper was holding a glass to his lips, "Drink." She insisted.

So Loki drank, the bitter fizzy drink, trying to gather his scatter awareness. It was not often that he retreated so far into his own thoughts that he lost track of his surroundings.

"Well thank heavens it's at least started," said voice from the direction of the elevator.

They all turned to stare in surprise.

"I was beginning to wonder what it was going to take to get the media's attention."

"Jarvis? Why is there a strange lady in my lab?" asked Tony.

"I'm not strange."

"Umm. No. You forget I've met you. I'm thinking strange definitely applies," retorted Tony glaring at the sharp featured brunette who was looking at him over the tops of her glasses.

"Ms. Lewis, welcome to Stark International," Pepper said holding out her hand.

Loki felt his eyes go wide, he turned at looked questioningly at Pepper. "Darcy Lewis is my new PA?"

Feeling like he was missing something important, Loki stared at Darcy as she smiled at all of them and held up her cell phone to take a picture.

Faintly remembered images vied for his attention.

Loki stood and glared at Darcy. "You took and posted those pictures. Why?" he demanded wrathfully.

"I needed a push, to get people to notice the other stuff. And let me tell you, nothing gets reposted like pictures of a smoking hot guy..." She quirked an eyebrow at Loki and bumped her fist against his shoulder, "And you Loki are as smoking hot as they come. Okay, so you're also a freaky alien Viking god, that looks good in a suit, but you are really, really hot when you are half naked. Trust me, people notice that stuff."

Loki would only remember later that he had dropped the glass, leaving it to shatter on the hard polished concrete floor. It seemed to him that one moment he was standing there as hazy images of Darcy sitting on his couch with that damn phone snapping pictures of him while he was more than half asleep flitting across his memory and the next second he grabbed the phone out of her hand, throwing it so hard that it shattered it against the far wall of the lab, spraying plastic debris everywhere. Somehow he had her spun her around before grabbing the back of her neck and using an iron grip to force her up and almost off her feet. Darcy, toes barely touching the floor tried to keep up with him as he shoved her towards a storage room at the other end of the lab. All while Darcy was berating him for breaking her cell phone, which still had nine months to go on its contract, thank you very much. He was vaguely aware of dropping out of All Speak and screaming at her to shut up in Æsir as the door slammed shut of its own accord and various items in the store room explode around them.

At various times when he paused for breath, Darcy would try to make excuses, or as she would later claim, explain.

"We get everything bad out all at once, then start doling out the good stuff. The information they get in dribs and drabs will have more attention paid to it. Too big a data dump, like what is happening now, lots of the bad stuff will be lost in the noise." Darcy told him earnestly, trying not to notice a box of blank circuit boards flying off the shelf, just missing her head.

Ducking a spool of wire that flew towards her she continued earnestly, "It was going to come out, so it needs to all come out at one time. If we let the media think they discovered it for themselves, it will make them complacent."

"How many times did I help you, and yet you did this to me? Are you insane?!" Loki roared as Darcy threw herself backwards, slamming her back against a shelf, unable to get any further away from him. Actually he had shouted it numerous times, but finally realized that Æsir and old Elvish were not going to be understood, so he finally switched to English to scream.

Grabbing her shoulders hard enough to leave large bruises, Loki shook her. "Do you think this is a game? Do you have any idea what you have started?!" He lifted Darcy off the floor and brought her almost nose to nose with him as he screamed, "Please! Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you right now!"

Stark's voice issued from a speaker in the ceiling causing Loki to freeze. "Umm, Rudolf? Please don't kill the employee. For one thing it's prohibited in the company rule book and for another it just causes no end of paper work. So please let the suicidal PA live."

"I'm not suicidal, I'm right!" yelled Darcy at both of them.

"Nope, trust me," Tony's voice countered, "I wrote the book on suicidal behavior; you are fucking with a mentally unbalanced Nordic god. By anyone's definition that's suicidal."

"Stark I swear if you don't stop spying on me I will disembowel you, use your intestines to tie you to your work bench and then collapse this damn building down on your head! Do you understand me?!" Loki barked.

"Whoa, nice visual Patrick Bateman."

"STARK!"

"Okay, okay, I got it. No more spying. Now could you bring psycho chick out so we can all yell at her? I mean it's rude to keep all the fun to yourself."

"I'm driving Clara to visit her niece in Cranston Connecticut this weekend. Big baby shower for her great nephew's wife.." Said Darcy in a conversational voice that did not even hint that she was suspended in the air and had two large hands digging bruises into her arms.

"What?" Loki dragged his enraged glare away from the ceiling and stared at her, while still furious, his brows furrowed in confusion as he searched her face.

"You said give you one good reason. She doesn't have any other way to get there and she'll be devastated if she has to miss it." Darcy smiled at him.

Loki heard a muffled laugh from Tony, before the speaker cut out.

"Ms. Lewis, I want you to listen to me very closely." Loki growled. At Darcy's slightly wide eyed nod, he continued in a low threatening rumble. "If you ever betray my trust again you will most sincerely regret it for the rest of your life, which, depending on my mood at the time, might not be along as you think it will be. I am not Thor, I don't think it's funny and I have a very low tolerance for anyone making my life difficult."

"Okay…"

"You are a woman grown; it is time to stop acting like a child, stop expecting your bad behavior to be excused if you are cute enough. If you can't act like an adult, you can't be around me; I have no time for babysitting anyone except Stark. Who despite being yelled at is still most likely listening."

"Yeah, okay, I got it." Breathing heavily, Loki released her, allowing her to fall to her feet, which she retained with only a small stumble. Ignoring her, he turned and reached for the door knob.

"So okay." As Darcy made to follow him out of the storeroom, she asked, "So Pepper Potts. You doing her?"

Loki turned on her, eyes wide with disbelief, "Do you have a death wish!?"

"See, I told you, suicidal."

"STARK!"

"So that's a 'not yet' then on Potts?"

Loki growled at her before roughly thrusting her out the door ahead of him.

"Hey, no need to be that way, I'm just asking. Geeze."

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As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated and speed the posting of another chapter... If your not a comment kinda person Follows and Favorites are also very helpful and wonderful and give the author a warm fuzzy feeling.

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.

**Preview Chapter 20** - "Yeah, yeah. Keep your eye patch on, I'm coming." Darcy yelled over her shoulder. "I swear, you sign one little non-disclosure form with S.H.I.E.L.D. and they think they own your ass. Like that is ever going to happen." She dimpled and looked meltingly at Loki, "Unless it's your non-disclosure form, then I am totally on board with you owning my ass," she mockingly cooed at the god.


	20. Chapter 20 - Restrain Yourself

Loki lays down the law and Pepper tried to educate him on acceptable levels of correction for employees. Then Darcy lays down the law... or at least one of them. Oh and men wearing makeup, what fun.

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Returning to Midgard after an absence of almost two years, Loki finds that as desperate for change as he has been, some changes will take time to get used to, especially when they concern his relationship with Tony and Pepper. Darcy lays down her taser, momentarily and decides to start wielding the internet to the dismay of both the fallen Prince of Asgard and S.H.I.E.L.D. This sequel is 75,000 words long and will update regularly.

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Chapter #20 – Restrain Yourself

"So many people in this realm that need to die, and I'm not supposed to kill any of them." Loki muttered angrily as he left the storeroom, pushing Darcy in front of him.

"I know," said Tony cheerfully not looking up from the suit gauntlet he was fiddling with. "Sucks doesn't it?"

"Stark." Loki's voice was low and dripping with loathing, "You know you are currently in one of my top five slots of people who deserve to die for being annoying don't you?."

"Heh?" Tony smirked. "Well yeah for me I guess. What about psycho chick over there?" Tony pointed to Darcy who was making a bee-line towards the other end of the lab, obviously in search of her smashed phone.

Loki's glare was hot enough to ignite concrete as he looked at Darcy who was pawing through the remains of her broken cell phone, "Top ten easily."

As they watched, Darcy gave a cry of triumph and lifted part of her broken phone and removed a memory card from it. "My memory card's okay!" she cried ecstatically.

Tony looked at Loki, raising an eyebrow as if to say, 'Are you going to let her keep that?'

Loki snapped his fingers and a bright flash of light flared out and Darcy hastily dropped the smoking memory card with a cry of dismay.

'No.'

Tony snickered.

Pepper came up behind Tony, nudging him and giving him a 'Will you stop that' glare, with just a hint of a 'Oh my god, you're supposed to be an adult' frown. "Tony, don't encourage him."

She then turned to Loki, "I know you don't want to hear it, but Ms. Lewis is most likely right. It will be a bit messy for a while, but it has to be addressed sooner rather than later, so now is as good a time as any. I'll let them hound me into a press conference tomorrow afternoon, so we can hit the evening news." She patted his arm, "It will be fine, honest. We've dealt with worse situations."

Loki frowned down at her, "Worse than invading New York?"

"Which you were tortured into doing!" Darcy said coming back over towards them, slipping past Tony and coming to rest on Loki's other side...

Loki brushed off Pepper's hand off his forearm and stared down with hard green eyes just as Darcy tightly wrapped her hand around his other arm.

"You know, I have your brother's pics posted on Facebook with a mouth full of pancakes." Darcy said, "And with a terminal case of bed head and covered in mud after tugging our van loose on the dirt road to hell. That's what I do, it wasn't just you. But I admit, it originally started out as a thesis study for my Political Science, Bachelor degree." Darcy patted Loki's arm with her other hand while giving Loki an anxious look, oblivious to the incredulous stare that Stark was throwing her way or even Pepper's concerned frown. "But the reason I chose you as a thesis project was to try and get the word out that it wasn't your fault. And… Well, you may not have liked it, but my last set of pictures seemed to have done the trick. The hits on the court findings and those news articles have gone through the roof."

Darcy chuckled, hazel blue eyes crinkling behind the thin black frames of her glasses. "So it's all good." She said with a wide happy smile.

Darcy Lewis was very 'Thor-like', he thought bemused, in that she had a gift for skirting right up to the point where he would lose control, and then say or do something that would disarm him. He frowned; one of his main problems lately was keeping his temper in check, all of his life, while he may have raged inwardly, he had been able to keep others from knowing how upset he was.

But since that horrible day with Odin in the weapons vault, it was like a layer of control had been stripped from him once he found out that he was a Jotun, leaving him prey to wild swings of emotion. Visible emotion that is, he had always felt anger, frustration and pain of course, but he had never let anyone other than Mother or Thor see it, and not even them so much as he became older. Doctor Crane seemed to think it was not so much a shameful lack of control, as it was a willingness to let certain others actually see what he was feeling, along with a widening of the circle of people who he felt safe enough to express his true emotions in front of. Either way, it was still disconcerting to the point of a suppressed panic attack when it happened.

"Darcy, I want you to listen to me, I don't want you to ever post anything about me or provide someone else information about me, without my explicit permission or that of Ms. Potts in my absence," Loki's voice was resigned, but had a razor sharp edge to it. At Darcy's emphatic nod, he continued. "Even if it happens through carelessness on your part, I swear I will break enough bones in your hands to make it impossible for you to use that damn phone of yours."

"Okay then," Pepper said in a falsely bright voice as she slid around Loki and untangled Darcy from his arm. "Now Loki, we don't do stuff like that. However Darcy you have signed numerous confidentiality agreements and would be subject to suspension, dismissal and possibly a financially crippling lawsuit for unauthorized release of information."

"Shut up Tony," She growled, glaring at the snorting inventor. "Now, I want you two to 'chat', not scream, for a couple of hours, Darcy will be getting a bunch of back ground information from you, she knows what we need. I going to brief someone from PR and Marketing, get them to sign a few more non-disclosure contracts and then send them down to you to get you both ready for tomorrow's media circus."

"Marketing?" Loki asked skeptically.

"Ooooo Pepper, why not that Eddie guy from marketing? Psycho girl will love him and hey he'll look good as background filler during the news conferences." Tony smirked at Darcy, "And he is already a 'big' Lucas fan."

"Yes Loki, marketing. We are going to sell this thing. You watch and see if we don't"

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The press conference was just as bad as Loki had feared it would be. It wasn't that he was uncomfortable with large crowds watching his every move, even as a second prince, he had come in for more than his share of scrutiny, from crowds much larger than the ones that showed up. But of course Asgard did not have media like Midgard; here it only took minutes for news, good or bad, to reach the outlying provinces. This meant of course that there was no second chance to shape the way that his message received in different places with different audiences.

Loki had of course solved the problem of keeping track of what was going on in a public venue without moving centuries ago. He scattered a few disguised clones around the large conference room, that way he could keep any eye on the reactions of those on the stage and in the crowd without the necessity of having his gaze do anything but serenely look upon the audience. On more occasions than he cared to think about, he had also used his clones to incite the reaction he desired from the court, or catcalls to interrupt others when they looked like them might be swaying the audience in a direction he didn't want them to go. Of course it didn't always work, but he felt that the split in his concentration was worth it for the advantage that it often brought him.

Fortunately Loki had learned years ago to allow semi-autonomous action to his clones when it was necessary for him to devote his full energies elsewhere. A thin smile spread across his face, after all, it wouldn't do for the wildly applauding or cat calling person in the crowd to just disappear because Loki's attention had to be directed elsewhere. That would draw too much unwanted attention to his activities after all.

As he studied the room from various angles, he kept a close eye on today's potential loose cannons. Stark, in a very good looking suit was of course fiddling with his phone, most likely getting updates from Jarvis, but that was not an uncommon activity for him when he wasn't at the actual podium and shouldn't cause any comment from the press. Loki was glad to see that not only was Stark sober but rather than exhibiting boredom, Stark was occasionally tossing very focused looks over the crowd.

Of course while few would label Director Fury a 'loose cannon', Loki felt that the one person who had chance to 'go off' and do damage this afternoon was Fury. While the man was noted for discipline in general, he did have a tendency to lose his temper when provoked by what he perceived was stupidity, hopefully Agent Colson would be able to share with him some of his legendary calm.

Ms. Lewis was looking surprisingly professional standing behind and slightly to the left of him. Her well-tailored grey, knee length suit complimenting Loki's own dark charcoal one, which of course it should since she had gone through his closets last night pulling out the outfit she wanted him to wear today. Apparently there was a psychological code to dressing for Midgard media events, or at least the ones in the United States. Arguing with Ms. Lewis was pretty much a losing battle even for a god, much like Thor, she just would not shut up. While he had many times sealed Thor's lips when he was being annoying, for reasons he couldn't currently define, he had yet to do that to Ms. Lewis. He smiled to himself as the visual of a lip sealed Ms. Lewis glaring at him while furiously and repeatedly texting him.

"Honest Loki," Darcy explained last night, "I have worked on two major campaigns, this stuff does matter, especially when doing televised news conferences." So she had vetoed his black suits claiming that while he could totally do the 'power color' it would translate as too harsh visually and as a 'space alien' who had invaded their planet he needed to soften his image quite a bit to get people to listen to him.

OoooO

Tony had got his makeup done early and was hanging around waiting for Loki to show up, the vestige of a smile tugging at his lips. He was looking forward to ragging the Petulant Prince while he sat in the makeup chair. At first, it had been as entertaining as he had thought it would be, he hoped Jarvis had gotten some good pictures at Loki's appalled expression when the makeup woman discussed with him the merits of having his normally pale skin tone warmed up for the press conference. Tony had managed to keep a lid on it, but Darcy had trilled delightedly at Loki's disgusted expression. Apparently Viking gods did not like bronzer and applying makeup implied that one was ergi, and Loki just flat wasn't doing it. Who knew? Well Jarvis would as soon as Tony got a chance to ask him in private what the hell that meant.

At any rate, despite Darcy's pleas, Tony's encouragement and Pepper's flat out demand for him to quit being a baby, Loki didn't have any makeup applied. Loki's total involvement with Pepper's makeup artist involved her telling him what she wanted while he made adjustments to a glamour. How magical photoshopping was ergi-free as opposed to regular makeup was something that Tony was at a lost to understand. But since it left Tony and not Princess Covergirl having to spend a good half hour with cold cream to get the crap off, it was total fricking cheating as far as Tony was concerned.

However, Tony was just glad that it was Loki and not him that was doing an exclusive interview and photo shoot afterwards. Darcy had, with Loki's begrudging permission after taking Pepper's advice, sold an exclusive interview, with the high six figure fee going to a charity of Loki's choice. Oh wait, the press doesn't 'pay' for interviews, according to what the news director had haughtily told Tony.

They weren't paying for an exclusive interview; rather they were paying for the licensing fees of photographs from an exclusive photo shoot that was going to happen during the interview. Yeah right, the hypocrisy was running pretty high today, but on the plus side it was Loki having to do it and not him and he was going to get a boatload of money for his Goat-horns of Mayhem charity.

Anyhow it had been pretty funny to see Loki wavering between disconcerted and calm-collected. But since Loki had most likely done crazier public display things in Odin's court for more centuries than newspapers had been around, he had settled down pretty quick. Which meant that Tony could still have fun harassing him while they were getting ready.

Also funnier than hell was watching that Darcy chick flutter around Loki, apparently she was the god's biggest fan and she was pretty frantic about trying to make sure he was happy here on Earthgard. A Personal Assistant with separation issues, funny actually. While Psycho chick was not immune to the charms of Eddie Stennis, the ridiculously good looking guy from marketing, the minute Loki had showed up, she was all over the god like a kitten on a heating pad. Pretty cute in a 'how in the hell is this going to work in the long run' kinda way. But hey, who is he to laugh. After all he had Pepper's complete and total attention while she was his PA.

Tony was checking last minute feed when Pepper finally decided to get started. He had been keeping an eye on the tweets of the news monkeys gathered in the room, and so far, with the exception of the ones who objected to people referring to Loki as a god, it was not as bad as it could have been. Okay so Faux News was stroking about him being an alien invader responsible for the death of hundreds, most of the other tweets were at least paying lip service to the judicial findings of Asgard as filtered through the U.S. government. Tony was glad to see that Stark International was hardly mentioned at all so far.

The questions were much as he expected, and he was doing okay until the one reporter asked her about dating Loki. Oh crap! Now what was Pepper saying?

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As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated and speed the posting of another chapter... If your not a comment kinda person Follows and Favorites are also very helpful and wonderful and give the author a warm fuzzy feeling.

I already have the start of Part three written, but it will have to wait until 'Queen's Grace' is finished. Which sadly is at 48,000 words with no middle in sight. Sigh...

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.

Preview Chapter 21 - It had long been Tony's private opinion that Loki was either not exactly on board during the invasion, but he never could get anyone to agree with him on that theory. He smiled inwardly; well at least he couldn't before the Asgard findings were released. Afterwards all kind of people agreed with him. This after the fact finding was frankly embarrassing to the S.H.I.E.L.D. strategists. Something that Tony delighted in reminding them of occasionally… like every time he saw them.


	21. Chapter 21 - Let's Chat

Pepper holds A press conference, questions are answered.

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Returning to Midgard after an absence of almost two years, Loki finds that as desperate for change as he has been, some changes will take time to get used to, especially when they concern his relationship with Tony and Pepper. Darcy lays down her taser, momentarily and decides to start wielding the internet to the dismay of both the fallen Prince of Asgard and S.H.I.E.L.D. This sequel is 75,000 words long and will update regularly.

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This is a from here to there chapter, I wrote it several times and this is as good as it gets. Lots of back ground if you are into that.

Chapter #21 – Lets Chat

Ms. Potts had done a brief introduction of everyone, told them they were going to restrict questions to three per speaker until everyone has finished, after which general questions will be taken. She then launched into a description of how she had discovered and tried to recruit a brilliant Carnegie Institute of Technology grad student, only to find out later that was actually him, Loki, an Asgardian prince and the brother of Thor.

Loki could 'not' believe the gasps that he heard at that last statement. Honestly, the number of mortals who apparently 'never' look up readily available background information was astounding to him, especially since the room was supposedly filled with people who worked for information disbursement companies. However he was sure that the same morons, who didn't know about Thor, would ask him stupid questions about his supposed children because rather than read a government document that clearly stated that Thor was considered in Asgard to be his brother, they instead were going off half remembered myths they learned in grade school.

Ms. Potts continued by detailing the discovery by Stark of who Lucas Laufey really was and her research into his part of the New York tragedy. After finding out that his participation had been forced by months of unending torture and mind control and that Asgard had deemed Loki not guilty by reasons of afore mentioned coercion, she offered him a second chance. She finished her statement by declaring him a valued employee, board member and a personal friend.

The personal friend bit engendered a bit of grumbling by a few in the audience, so he very slowly, without moving his hands from his lap, made a few gestures. While he doubted that anyone in the general audience noticed anything, he thought, going by the sharp look that Stark tossed at him, that Jarvis had.

Once the reporters realized that Ms. Potts had completed her statement, they all began shouting out their questions. Ms. Potts listened a moment and then pointed to a middle aged male near the center of the crowd.

"Stanley Tropes, WNYW Fox News, New York. Ms. Potts, why would Stark International employ a war criminal who was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people and many billions of dollars in property damage?" he asked disapprovingly, his face a study in disgust.

"We don't and we wouldn't," She said calmly. "If you had listened to my statement, you would know that Lucas Loki Laufey was investigated and deemed innocent of those crimes and in fact-"

"Follow-up," The reporter called, interrupting Pepper. "So all those people he injured are just going to be forgotten?"

"In fact," Pepper said, smoothly continuing her reply, "our own government remanded him to the Asgardian Justice system and accepted this judgment." Her eyes swept the room, "As for the injured, Loki's absolute first act upon returning to Earth was to bring Asgardian medical aide to those still being treated for injuries sustained during the attack. Despite being a victim himself of the Chitauri and their controller, he made sure that the people still recovering were cured. All of them, even those still in critical condition recovered to perfect health.."

Before anyone could try to follow up, she pointed to a young-ish blonde in the front row.

"Cristina Danvers, Time Herald the woman said standing up. "Loki may have been himself a victim, but aren't you afraid that he might snap or relapse and injure his fellow employees or the general public?"

Pepper laughed softly, "I am no more afraid of that for Lucas than I am for any other person we employ."

Before the woman could call out a follow up, Pepper pointed to a tall male reported in the back. "You, in the middle, with the brown jacket."

"Thank you Ms. Potts. Samuel Westerly, WFFA Dallas. Exactly how long has Loki worked for Stark International? And what exactly does he do?"

"Well Lucas has worked for us for not quite three years. He was originally hired as a researcher and worked directly with Mr. Stark for the first two years." Her eyes again swept the crowd. "I have always known him by Lucas, so that is how I refer to him." She said in answer to a loud comment that floated over the crowd and then continued, "He was called away for a few years to help deal with a problem in Asgard and he now splits his time working with Mr. Stark as a researcher and myself as a Chief Operating Officer."

"Follow-up!" Westerly called, "Are you dating him? You've been seen out with him in public numerous times. How would you describe your relationship?"

Pepper looked grim, "As a friend? As an employee? Lucas has accompanied me to several company functions to assist as a Stark International employee. I'm his boss, I'm a personal friend but he's not my boyfriend. She then smiled slyly, "I understand he has cut quite a swath through the local model community. Apparently they will occasionally pass over a billionaire for someone tall enough to let them wear spike heels."

A low chuckle rolled through the crowd. Loki lifted a brow, exchanging an amused look with Ms. Potts before throwing a smirk at Stark who was shaking his head and looking at something on his phone.

OoooO

Tony looked up from his phone at the short joke and made a face at Pepper.

Pepper then sat down, ignoring further questions being called out from the crowd. Director Fury did not go to the podium. Instead he said a few words to the man standing behind him and Agent Coulson stepped forward, motioned for quiet and introduced himself.

Okay, apparently we are not going to have Nick going off at the crowd today, Tony thought. While Fury might, perhaps, in some people's opinion, but not his, be a good director, he was not exactly god's gift to press conferences. Agent was much better at keeping his cool.

"Hello everyone, my name is Phillip Coulson, I work for S.H.I.E.L.D. Since I have had a lot of direct contact with Loki, or Lucas as many now know him, it was decided that perhaps I should be the one to do this briefing for S.H.I.E.L.D. I was actually the first person that Loki contacted when he was released from Asgard and sent to Earth to give us the Æsir official judicial findings. I was also the first person to receive Asgardian medical assistance to cure me of injuries I sustained during the battle.

Coulson's lips turned up at the corners in a small smile. "Loki and I fought during the battle and he is the one who injured me. When he attacked me, I'm afraid I was both threatening him with a rather powerful gun and commenting on his lack of conviction during the invasion. In light of the findings from Asgard I have recently begun to think that perhaps he needed to stop me from making any more comments before I revealed to the Chitauri that many of his actions were sabotaging the success of the attack. Certainly he was fast enough and strong enough that the thermal blaster I was using was not that much of a worry for him." Coulson smirked and huffed a small laugh ducking his head to look over at Loki. "In fact I ended up shooting him with the darn thing, it blasted him through a reinforced wall and he just shook it off and got back up."

It had long been Tony's private opinion that Loki was either not exactly on board during the invasion, but he never could get anyone to agree with him on that theory. He smiled inwardly; well at least he couldn't before the Asgard findings were released. Afterwards all kind of people agreed with him. This after the fact finding was frankly embarrassing to the S.H.I.E.L.D. strategists. Something that Tony delighted in reminding them of occasionally… like every time he saw them.

Coulson continued, interrupting Tony's private smirk fest. "One thing that we didn't realize at the time, but have since found out was that as powerful as we thought Loki was at the time of the invasion, he was actually suffering from starvation, injury and mentally restricted from using most of his powers. At present, our strategists are working on the assumption that the only way the Chitauri could control him is if they kept him in a weakened state." Coulson again glanced back at Loki, who merely lifted his shoulders in a polite non-committal shrug.

"At any rate," Coulson continued, "I have personally seen Loki in action since then when he worked as a special consultant for S.H.I.E.L.D. He has assisted us in many rescue missions and I can tell you that he did not use his full strength or powers during the invasion." Coulson motioned for the reporters to quiet back down.

"S.H.I.E.L.D., as a duly constituted government agency has thoroughly investigated the events of the invasion and Loki's activities since his return. In co-operation with our sister agencies in the United States and our allied agencies in Germany, we have concluded that he is not a threat to either of us and should be allowed to pursue his private activities without any more over sight that is given to any other government contractor.."

During the pandemonium of reporters trying to get chosen to speak, Tony took a moment to see if Jarvis had any more information on what Loki had been doing during Pepper's statement. There had been an energy surge, not one that would register with anyone else's sensors, but Jarvis knew Loki's energy signature like nobody else on the planet, so Jarvis caught it. According to what was being reported, Jarvis still didn't know what Loki had done, it wasn't like any of his previously recorded patterns. Rather than dispersing like it usually did when Loki had summoned something, or affected some other change in the lab, the energy was still present. It was obviously doing something, but neither Tony nor Jarvis knew just what.

Tony knew he could of course text Loki and ask him. But Loki most likely would not reply until later, since he didn't like to be interrupted by his phone and often had it on vibrate so he could ignore it. So Tony retrained himself from sending such a text. Loki could get awfully snippy when asked to explain his magic and besides Tony was pretty sure that he would be able to figure it out by the end of the conference.

Rather than choose someone to speak, Coulson had decided to just pick whatever question he wanted to answer from those being shouted at him.

"Yes, the picture in today's New York Times was Loki assisting with a S.H.I.E.L.D. operation. He was instrumental in locating the remaining bombs in the Atlanta incident before they could injure any more civilians or first responders. He also marked their locations so that the bomb squads could find and disarm the before anymore exploded." Coulson listened a minute and then continued.

"I'm not sure how he did it. But I do know that he was able to place flashing lights and a warning siren at each bomb location to both alert people to evacuate and to let the bomb squads know where to go. He also assisted in the rapid transfer of personnel to deactivate the bombs."

Coulson smoothed his suit jacket and stood just a bit straighter, if that was even possible. He listened to the calls for a few minutes, his brows drew together and he then he frowned and motioned for silence.

"Asgardian justice apparently is a bit more 'robust' than what we practice in the states." As the noise level again rose, Coulson again motioned for quiet and then just stood there until the room was completely still. "As I said, they have a different way of doing things in Asgard. They do not use a jury, or lawyers, nor do they apparently have any postponement period while evidence is being gathered. Rather, within the hour of his return Loki was judged and sentenced by single individual."

Tony noted that all eyes were now on Loki, who had his Egyptian mask face on, absolutely no emotion showing.

"Within two hours of his return he was being flogged… one hundred and eighty- two times wasn't it?" Coulson asked looking over at Loki. At Loki's abrupt nod, Coulson looked down at the notes in his hands and continued.

"Then without having his injuries treated he was chained and thrown in a cage hanging from the ceiling that was only four feet wide. He left here at the beginning of May wasn't released from that cage until January our time. Nine months, this is also when he was allowed his first bath, first change of clothes and finally had the shackles removed from his wrists. February through November were spent in a more traditional cell, again without any medical care, shower facilities, change of clothing or being allowed outside the cell for even an hour."

Colson looked up from his notes, ignored the murmuring from the reporters and continued in an impassive voice. "In October testimony and evidence confirming the torture and mind control were finally presented but before any decision was made it was November and Loki had become critically ill. He was unresponsive for several days and near death before he was finally taken to a medical facility, his first visit there since leaving earth nineteen months earlier. His condition was so serious that he was kept in a medically induced coma for six weeks and then spent another two months under constant medical supervision before recovering enough to be released.."

Coulson looked at one of the reporters in the crowd. "So, while it was not quite two years since the New York invasion, it seems to have been a very intense time, especially for someone who was declared innocent due to coercion. A month later he was deemed strong enough to travel which is when I met him again, as I said, he contacted me while delivering medical assistance for those injured in the attack."

After a minute Colson waved down the noise and smiled at the assembled reporters. "No, I do not consider him to be a danger to other law abiding citizens. Once he was released from the imposed mental constraints he became quite reasonable. According to his brother Thor, who was able to observe and speak with Loki several times during the attack, the person we saw during the attack did not in any way resemble the brother he has known his entire life." Coulson nodded and then walked back to stand again behind Director Fury.

As Coulson moved to the back of the stage, Tony, along with everyone else turned their eyes to the god sitting at the end of the stage.

OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO

As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated. If you are not a comment kinda person Follows and Favorites are also very helpful to the story in search placement so if you feel so inclined I would appreciate it.

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.

CHAPTER 22 PREVIEW - One of his clones on the far side of the room became aware of odd activities by one of the video camera operators. While Loki was not looking in that direction, by way of his clone Loki was saw a stocky camera man pull items out various equipment bags that were lined up against the wall. As the man began snapping them together, it became apparent that the man was not putting together a tripod or anything that looked camera related, but it didn't really look like a gun either.


	22. Chapter 22 - Loki Speaks

Returning to Midgard after an absence of almost two years, Loki finds that as desperate for change as he has been, some changes will take time to get used to, especially when they concern his relationship with Tony and Pepper. Darcy lays down her taser, momentarily and decides to start wielding the internet to the dismay of both the fallen Prince of Asgard and S.H.I.E.L.D. This sequel is 75,000 words long and will update regularly ** OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO** Loki does Q&A for the Midgardian media and a short personal trip down memory lane. The rest of the from here to there stuff, but hard to write, I felt so bad for the Trickster.

Chapter #22 – Loki Speaks

Tony was shocked to see that Loki's hands were covering his face and that his head was down. Puzzled, he watched as the god took a deep, shuddering breath and then raised his head, suspiciously bright eyes looking over the crowd as he stood.

Loki walked slowly to the podium and then stood there a moment, gripping either side of it, his knuckles white with strain. He lowered his eyes, brows knit, looking at the podium surface even though he had not placed any notes there. The reporters were silent; the only noise in the room came from the whisper of cloth as people shifted, the small creak of a chair being shifted and a soft hum from the lights above. After what seemed like an eternity, the god's painfully straight shoulders sagged and he flicked his brilliant green eyes up sighing softly as he worried his lower lip.

Tony was not sure what exactly was happening with Loki, but it seemed like half the reporters sighed with him.

"I want to first apologize for my part in the invasion of earth by the Chitauri. While my participation was forced, I still am deeply sorry that I was not able to resist participating in the injury and destruction that occurred."

Even though Tony very familiar with Loki's normal voice, which in and of its self was pretty captivating, he was shocked at the mesmerizing rich warm chocolate tones that Loki was using to speak to the reporters. Where had this voice come from Tony wondered and more importantly why hadn't he ever heard it before? Tony stared at the god fascinated; he knew he could have happily sat there for hours and listened to Loki recite anything, heck the phone book, so long as the god used that voice. A quick look at the crowd in front of him told him that he wasn't the only one Loki's voice had affected.

Loki lowered his bright green eyes a moment, touching this tongue nervously to his lips as he glanced back up at the assembled crowd.

"I would also like to thank the governments of the United States and Germany for their understanding and for continuing to allow me to reside here on Earth. Additionally of course I appreciate the opportunity to contribute to your culture that is afforded to me by Stark International and the opportunity that S.H.I.E.L.D. allows me to make amends in some small way for the damage that I was unfortunately part of."

A small, sad smile danced briefly across Loki face as he flicked his eyes to look at those sitting behind him on the stage. "And I am of course, deeply appreciative of the many kindnesses that so many of you have shown me on Earth where I wrought so much pain. Kindness… And understanding, that I did not even receive on my own world."

Tony was amazed at how quiet everyone was, even as the god stood there without speaking for several moments. Which Tony supposed was only natural, since even though he knew the god in all his moods, the good and the bad, right now the only thing Tony wished he could do right now was to settle Loki somewhere soft and warm, assure him that none of it was his fault and comfort him with a cup of cocoa… Or something.

He watched as Loki slowly drew himself tall and straight, like some invisible armor falling into place on the man.

"Since almost everything about me and my participation in the invasion is public record, I don't see any need to go into too much detail, especially since much of it is not appropriate to speak of when children may be watching. I will merely state that events outlined on the Æsir legal documents posted on WikiLeaks are accurate as are the statements just made by Agent Coulson. So I will take questions now, I just ask that you keep them appropriate for a mixed audience."

Like Coulson, rather than single out any one person for a question, Loki selected his questions from the ones being shouted out to him.

"Am I really a god?" Both brows raised and Loki looked thoughtful. "Rather say that I am an immortal who visited earth enough times in the past, that shorter lived, less advanced people remembered me and the assistance that I gave them." Loki essayed a small sweet smile, "But the truth became, let us say, 'embroidered' during the passage of this information from generation to generation. I am after all not a spiritual being, nor did I create life or the cosmos or anything like that."

Loki held up a hand for silence and waited a moment. "Why should you believe me if I am the god of lies?" he repeated. "Well because I'm not. While almost everything written about me on Wikipedia is wrong, even there you won't see me listed as a god of lies. I am listed as a 'Trickster' which actually denotes an Agent of Change. And as a scholar in Asgard and here as a researcher, I have always been at the forefront of change."

Loki looked out over the audience and sighed, "And truthfully, my unwitting role in the invasion was also a change in direction for Earth, since you are all now aware of other planets and realms."

Unlike the clamoring the instant that Coulson was finished speaking, there was a small pause after the god, or immortal, or whoever was done with each question. It was almost as if no one wanted to interrupt, just in case that glorious voice wanted to continue speaking. Tony had already decided he was going to have Jarvis make a copy of this for his private server. Just so he could see if he could figure out the harmonics or something… After all, it was his tower and Tony could save what files he wanted, for whatever reason he wanted.

And he knew for a fact who was going to do the voice overs for their next Arc Reactor Proposal. 'Hell, maybe Pepper was right, send that voice and that face to Washington or Berlin and they would never have to worry about approvals again. Not to mention that brain. But did he want that voice, face and brain going on all those meetings with Pepper?' Tony's mood darkened for a moment as he struggled to keep from frowning.

'Stop. Just don't go there,' Tony thought. 'Think science project. Yeah, is it universal? I know Loki has that all-speak thing, I wonder if those tones translate into say Mandarin? Or is it his accent mixed with those tones?' Now Tony actually did sense a science project. And then another thought hit him, 'Damn. Can it be transferred maybe? Thor has all-speak, can Pepper and I learn it?'

"Am I glad my army was destroyed?" Loki swept the audience with a pained and puzzled look. "Well they weren't my army, but of course I was. I wanted desperately to get away from the Chitauri and more than that, I wanted them to lose. They had tortured me, invaded Earth and threatened the other Nine Realms with invasion." He looked up at the ceiling as if he could see the stars and the universe above them, "Earth is a gateway to the other eight realms. They can't get there except through Earth."

He shook his head and took a deep breath before lowering his eyes again to his rapt audience. "But I have to say in fairness, as much as I myself suffered during the many months that the Chitauri leader had me tortured, the general Chitauri population is an enslaved race of the Mad Titan."

Loki paused to let the surprised murmuring die down before continuing, "The Mad TitanTitan has a true name, but we don't speak it. Much like Lord Voldemort in your children's narratives, we do not to name him, so as not to draw his attention in our direction. Unlike the book however, this is not a child's tale but a very real skill that the Mad TitanTitan possesses." Loki looked like he might say more, but then this lips tightened into a thin line.

After a moment, Loki swept his right hand up and spread his long fingers out to rest elegantly on the left side of his chest. He bowed his head slightly to the assembled reporters before stepping away from the podium, ignoring the additional questions and comments being called out to him.

At Pepper's nod, the podium was bundled off stage by two Stark International employees, while a third passed out microphones to the main figures on the stage. Fury looked at his sourly; making sure it was turned off, before passing it to Coulson who was standing patiently behind him.

OoooO

While it had gone better than Loki had hoped, he was stilled worried about the follow up questions. There he would not be able to pick and choose his questions, so it could get ugly. Fast. He felt a soft pat on the back of his shoulder from Darcy Lewis, but rather than look at her, he squared his shoulders and focused his attention on his disguised clones in the audience. While some of the reporters looked troubled, no one looked excessively upset or agitated.

Amazingly, the first question was for Ms. Potts concerning his employment with Stark International. The reporter wanted to know how a supposedly a good corporate citizen that 'gave back' to the community could put corporate profits gained by hiring someone like him over the pain and money he had cost the citizens of New York.

Ms. Potts responded credibly he thought, but the increasingly hostile follow up questions made her smile fade a bit. Just as Loki was getting ready to step in, Stark interrupted her.

"I got this one Pep," Stark said with a badly concealed smirk.

"You," he said as he pointed disdainfully at the reporter that had been the most vocal. "Obviously, 'you' don't do your homework." Stark stood up and walked to the center of the stage. "Okay, I want to see a show of hands for everyone who actually did a real investigative check of Lucas Laufey the current alias of Loki the God of Mischief before they got here?" Numerous hands were raised.

Stark stuck his lower lip out nodding. "Great. Now how many of you geniuses knew he was the sole support of a charity?" Almost all of the hands went down.

"Okay, where you from?" he asked a short plump brunette woman. "USA Today? Good, What about you with the beard?" He listened for a moment, "The Wall Street Journal? Great." Tony laughed, "Hey, you know I love you best right?" His eyes shifted to the back and he pointed once again. "What about you? Yeah, you with the blue blazer." He paused for a moment and then turned and grinned at Pepper, "The Los Angeles Times? Hey Pep, from our old stomping grounds."

Tony waved a hand dismissively and returned his attention to the audience. "Okay, a few more of you which is good. But honestly, the rest of you need a little more prep work next time. Just saying. We're not always going to be able to spoon feed you guys."

Loki was surprised when Tony turned to him and asked. "So Loki, tell the ones who didn't do their prep work the name of your charity."

"Ah… That would be the GOM Foundation, I established it when I first started working for Stark International." A few reporters snickered.

"I know," Tony smirked winking at the crowd. "Seriously? The God of Mischief Foundation? But I guess he couldn't exactly call it the Poor Tortured Bastard Tries to Make Good Foundation. Heck even if he just used the initials PTBTTMG is a bit of a mouth full. Yes?" Tony's face crinkled up and he laughed. "Sounds like a baby trying to spit out oatmeal doesn't it." There were enough chuckles from the audience that Tony smiled and wagged his eyebrows up and down a second.

Loki merely raised one of his eyebrows at Tony as he paced across the stage. "Anyhow, because I did 'do' my homework, unlike most of you drones. And no, I did not get this information from our payroll department." Tony tossed a glance at Loki and then stopped in the center of the stage. "I did a web search of foundations dedicated to helping New Yorkers affected by the invasion. Anyhow, I know that every dime of Loki's pay check goes into a stock account that funds the thing. Every single dime. Not once has Loki personally profited from working for Stark International. "

Tony grinned evilly down at the reporter who had started this line of questioning. "So you could say that by hiring Loki, Stark International has provided him with seed money to help the New Yorkers affected."

"So. Loki, what else have you done for the citizen affected by your first visit?" Tony motioned Loki to come stand by him and then said, "Apples?"

Loki walked over and stood by Stark frowning slightly at him, "Well yes, as soon as I was released and allowed to leave Asgard, I did make arrangements for healing apples to be delivered to all of those that S.H.I.E.L.D. indicated were still having problems of any kind with their health." Loki looked back at Coulson, "Well over three thousand yes?"

Coulson turned on his microphone and calmly spoke over the rising tide of voices. "Yes, everyone that received one recovered fully. Even those still in ICU or extended care."

"Well tell them about the lump sum you gave the city?" Loki narrowed his eyes at the snippy tone in Tony's voice. Tony looked over at the sea of faces watching him in disbelief. "Oh come on people. Tell me you at least knew about the money he gave to the City of New York." Tony cried in disbelief. He glared into the crowd as his lip curled. "Jeeze, are you sure you guys are reporters. That's a public record for crying out loud, how can you not know about it?"

"I did liquidate my Asgard holdings, some of it before I left there," Loki told the reporters. "Except for the gold used for a wergild paid to two guard's kin and a patronage gift to one of the prison guards, I gave the rest of it to New York City about three and a half years ago. It was to be earmarked for restoration of public property that was damaged." He looked down for a moment and then glanced sideways at Tony before again looking over the assembled reporters. "I did check on the disbursement of those funds a few months ago through a public records request that Stark was kind enough to explain to me. All the monies were all properly expended."

"Really," the annoying reported questioned scornfully. "Was it enough to pay for all the damages?"

Loki turned a baleful stare upon the reporter. "It was eight and a half million dollarsof your dollars. I was only a second prince you know; I had no great Æsir property or assets. Most of the items were not in themselves worth a lot, but many had great historical value since some of the ones from this realm were over a thousand years old." He smiled thinly, "And I of course was able to supply provenance."

Loki had to admit that his own bad decisions had contributed to his present dilemma and that he had a crying need to have been seen to make amends if he ever hoped to be accepted. As Ms. Lewis would say, he needed the 'good press'. And as a master manipulator, he knew that doing these things years before anyone else found out about them would give him additional credit. It was a shame it took so long for him to learn about trading stocks, he might not have had to sell everything but his books.

However, since he had brought his trouble on himself, there was no sense crying about the loss of his childhood trinkets. His favorite toy, a small, intricately carved long boat, complete with figurines would be greatly missed. And of course selling his finely detailed Hnefatafl set had also been a blow. Loki had spent many hours at that board, playing against his mother, Odin, Heimdall and numerous others. Loki sighed to himself. However much he hated to part with it, the 'Viking Chess' set had been, in and of itself, worth a fortune since actual gods had played on it. It was especially valuable when he had been able to provide a complete set of the 'lost' rules for it. Provenance of origin and previous players and Rules had been authenticated by Thor, the one Norse god the public had known about. Which was funny in a way, since Thor barely knew the rules and played at the level of a novice and Loki had been barely speaking to him at the time.

While he would be the last to whine about the sentiment attached to the items he had sold, Loki had tried to place as many of them as he could in museum collections so he could at least view them in the future if he desired. He tried not to bemoan the sale of the ones that had gone to the higher paying private collections. Those ones were now lost to him, most likely forever. Still he had been lucky he had so much to sell. Retention of keepsakes was an ingrained part of the Æsir life span, memories that were centuries old needed some anchors after all. Now in time those memories would fade and he would have to substitute new memories, Midgardian ones.

"So," Tony overrode whatever retort that the reporter was trying to make. "This guy," he pointed at Loki. "Who was absolved from blame for the attack due to torture and mental coercion, liquidated his entire princely estate and donated that money to the City of New York AND donates his entire Stark International salary to an investment account used by his foundation. Which by the way, the GOM Foundation has paid out almost what? Nine million dollars in the last four years according to my research." Tony looked over at Loki, who shrugged and nodded agreement with his total. Tony continued with narrowed eyes and revulsion dripping from every syllable, "So what exactly are you are complaining about? It's not normal for conscripted soldiers to have to pay damages to the countries they invade. And with the medical assistance his mother helped him provide I would say Loki has gone above and beyond what anyone can expect of him reparations wise."

"If that's the case, what do you live on?" shouted a reporter from the back of the conference room.

Stark shook his head in exasperation and returned to his seat. Holding his microphone away from him, Tony leaned over and angrily whispered something to Pepper, who shot him an irritated glance before hushing him.

Loki's lips twitched in a self-depreciating grin as he answered that last question. "I live off the investment dividends from a stock trading account I started while going to the Carnegie Mellon University. I originally funded it by doing free-lance work as a college student."

One of his clones on the far side of the room became aware of odd activities by one of the video camera operators. While Loki was not looking in that direction, via his clone, Loki was saw a stocky camera man pull items out various equipment bags that were lined up against the wall. As the man began snapping them together, it became apparent that the man was not putting together a tripod or anything that looked camera related, but it didn't really look like a gun either.

Coulson was coming forward to answer a question about why S.H.I.E.L.D. had allowed his identity to be kept secret. As Loki headed back towards his seat, he began making changes to the wards he had placed around the podium.

Coulson hadn't yet started answering the question when all hell broke loose.

OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO

As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated and speed the posting of another chapter... If your not a comment kinda person Follows and Favorites are also very helpful to the story in search placement so if you feel so inclined I would appreciate it.

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.

Chapter 23 Preview - His split attention meant when the shit starting raining down, he got soaked. One minute he was cruising twitter-verse, the next he being knocked to the floor by Loki as Coulson leapt in front of Fury. Tony fell heavily, almost bouncing the back of his head off the platform floor, watching as Loki dove at Pepper, rolling her underneath as their momentum carried them over the side of the platform by the stairs and out of sight.


End file.
